


Survivors

by LovelyLittleSnake



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Family Secrets, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Original Character-centric, Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:02:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyLittleSnake/pseuds/LovelyLittleSnake
Summary: Mirou Hakuryū, that was his name. It's what his mother called him, it's what his friends called him. It was the only name he'd ever know. However, after the sudden death of his mother, he is told that he had a different name. Mirou Uchiha. How will this young boy adapt to the drastic changes in his life?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 10





	1. How We Fall

The sun rose to peak above the trees in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, basking the land in its warm light. In an apartment near the village walls, a young boy awoke to the suns light shining in his face. He blinked the sleep from his eyes as he got up from his bed and towards the neatly folded clothes laying on his bedside table. He smiled down at the cloth, proud that he was able to do enough chores to finally buy his own clothes. They were simple, a mesh long sleeve, black shirt with half sleeves just the way he liked them, and black pants that finally didn't have any holes in them. Again, simple, but he liked them all the same.

He put on his clothes before leaving his room, checking on his mother who was still asleep in bed. The room smelt of alcohol and the boy sighed, knowing his mother was trying to quit her drinking habits. He made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge, taking out enough ingredients to make breakfast. Eggs and bacon were easy to cook, and he didn't have enough time to make anything bigger. It was a school day after all. He sat down with a plate of breakfast just as his mother walked into the room.

"Mornin' Mirou" she said sleepily, giving him a kiss on the forehead as she walked by. The boy, Mirou, gave a hum in response and ate another fork full of eggs. Mirou's mother sat down across from her son with her own plate, a smile dawning her face as she took notice of her son's new clothes.

"It looks good on you," she stated. Mirou beamed at the compliment.

"You think so?"

"Of course. You look just like your father."

Mirou felt his ears turn red. He never knew his father, and his mother never told him his name. But whenever she talked about him it always made Morou feel proud to be his son. He asked his mother once about him but all she said was "I can't tell you right now sunshine, maby later."

Finishing his breakfast, he quickly put away his dishes before brushing his teeth and tying his long raven hair into a ponytail. As he was about to leave the house, he was stopped by his mother's hand on his shoulder.

"Your ponytail is uneven. Here, let me fix it."

Mirou rolled his eyes but complied, knowing his mother's tactics to make his stay as long as possible.

"Mooom, I'm not a little kid. I can do my own hair now," he complained. However he found a smile crawling it's way onto his face. His mother chuckled lightly.

"I know I know, but you're growing up so fast! It feels like it was just yesterday you were a little baby," she replied, finishing with his hair. He put on his shoes and made his way out the door, responding to his mother's "I love you, have a good day at school," with a wave.

Turning the corner of his complex to make his way down the stairs, Mirou almost collided with his neighbor Ezume who was holding a large potted plant.

"Oh Mirou! I was hoping I would run into you. Thank you for taking care of my plants over the weekend, they look better than ever," she beamed. Mirou smiled back with an embarrassed blush.

"I-It was no problem, I'd be happy to do it again" he stammered. The older woman waved her one free hand in a discarding motion.

"Oh nonsense. Take this for your troubles." She handed him an apple from her bag. Mirou bowed before taking off to school.

"Thank you Ezume-san!" He called out before disappearing down the stairs. The streets were busy as he tried to walk down them, mumbling an apology everytime he accidentally bumped into someone. It was nearly half an hour before he got to school, noticing his friend Kiba walking towarts the school at the same time. Kiba noticed his friend and waved him over.

"Hey Mirou! How's it goi- wait did you finaly change your clothes?" Kiba exclaimed as he took in his friends new appearance.

"Yeah, I took care of Ezume-San's plants over the weekend and finally got enough money," Mirou grinned. Kiba rolled his eyes dramatically and slung his arm around his friend's shoulders.

"Finally! You've been wearing the same damn thing since before the academy!" He joked, Mirou laughed as the two made their way to class.

Inside the classroom Mirou sat beside kiba eho sat beside Choji, in the middle desk as always. They were about to start talking again when the slam of a palm againsed their desk startled them. On the other side was Anri Ono, a known troublemaker within the classroom. Her brown eyes flicked with amusement as she gazed at Mirou.

"Well well well, looks like half and half isn't homeless after all," she teased, using her new nick name for the young boy. Mirou averted his gaze, knowing that she was poking fun at his heterochromia. His right eye was like his mother's, ice blue, almost white. His left eye was as black as the night sky as his mother described it. Beside him, both Kiba and Akamaru growled.

"What do you want?" He snapped, Akamaru barking in agreement. Anri smirked.

"I just wanted to see what dear Mirou was wearing is all, it's atrocious as expected from you."

Mirou tried to laugh it off, however it sounded hollow and forced. Anri took the apple from Mirou's desk, took a bite, than chucked the rest before going back to her seat. Mirou sighed and let his head lean against his palm, not at all surprised by the event. Kiba all but fumed beside him.

"Why do you let her treat you like crap?" He grumbled, glancing towards his friend. Mirou pursed his lips before answering.

"She's only doing it to get a reaction out of me. If I don't give her a reaction than she'll eventually leave me alone." He explained.

"It's been three years man! Come on, show some back bone! I've seen you get angry man you'll scare her right off!"  
Mirou smiled at his friends attempt to cheer him up. Minuts pass and Iruka-Sensei finally showed up to start the class. They were practicing kuni throwing today and Mirou was exited. He had been practicing almost all week at the training grounds near his house and was proud of his improvement. 

With his previous bad encounter almost completely forgotten, Mirou anxiously waited his turn as they all lined up outside. Iruka-Sensei demonstrated the proper throwing Technique that the class had learned the week before, than split the class into groups of two. As luck would have it, Mirou got partnered up with Kiba. The two friend made their way to the wooden targets with Kiba volunteering to go first. Out of the ten kuni they were given, only four missed their mark.

"Kiba your so good! Have you been practicing?" Mirou praised. Kiba puffed out his chest at the praise, a toothy grin dawning his face.

"Yeah I've been practicing every now and then," he bragged, switching posts with Mirou. Butterflies found their way into his stomach as he approached his spot, taking one of the kuni in hand. He tood a deep breath before throwing it. A sudden loud noise caused him to squeal, the kuni missing it's target and almost hitting Kiba and Akamaru. Beside him Anri laughed loudly.

"Wow Mirou! I knew you were bad at this but I didn't know you were this bad! You could have seriously hurt someone!" She spoke loud enough for the whole class to hear. Some other kids started snickering and Mirou's face turned red from embarrassment. She shakily thew the rest of the kuni, barely half of them hitting their mark.

Iruka-Sensei called out for lunch time just as Mirou and Kiba finished collecting the tools, than boys went off to find their friends for lunch.

"Man I just can't believe her! I could have been killed!" Kiba angrily took another bite of his lunch. Beside him were his friends Choji, Shikamaru, and Mirou, the latter making sure that he didn't actually stab the young Inuzuka.

"She's so troublesome" Shikamaru muttered. Choji nodded in agreement, not stopping to take another handful of chips.

"She's just being worse today because Emiru isn't here," Mirou provided, however he still agreed with them. Usually Anri would only mess with him one or twice a week. But since her partner in crime, Emiru Takenaka, has been sick she's been getting bored without him, opting to make an enemy out of everyone in the school instead.

Lunch ended to soon for the four friends as they continued with their regular classes. Both Kiba and Shikamaru had fallen asleep, while Choji not-so-secretly tried to eat the rest of his lunch. Mirou tried to focus, but it was hard to do when someone kept throwing paper ar his head. He grimaced as he felt the eighth paper ball hit the back of his head. He looked over at the clock to see that there was only five minutes left. Iruka-Sensei handed them their homework just as the bell went off, signifying the end of school. Mirou packed his things and quickly made his way out the door before Anri could catch up to him, saying a quick bye to his friends as he passes them in the halls.

The walk back to his appartment was slow as he dragged his feet behind him. Anri was getting worse with her antics and Mirou really didn't want to get angry at her. Because if he gets angry than she's going to get angry. And she was downright terrifying when angry.

Mirou stopped outside a familiar shop, the smell of flowers invading his nose as he looked through the large glass window. Inside he could see his classmate Ino working on some arrangement for a customer. The little bell rung as he opened the door, alerting the young girl of his presence. He and Ino rarely ever talked accept when they were partnered up at school, however a look of recognition flashed across the young girls face as she finished up with the customer. She followed him as he went to look at some succulents.

"Your name is... Mirou right?" She asked. Mirou nodded with a smile.

"Are you looking for anything in specific?" Mirou hummed before answering.

"Yeah. I don't have any money right now but I'm not sure if I want to get a succulent, a cactus, or a tomato plant next."

"Well if your tight on money, I think you should get a cactus. They're very low maintenance." Ino explained. Mirou took this into consideration.

"Yeah I think that's a good idea. Thank you for the help Ino-san," he said as he exited the store.

Mirou continued his long walk home contemplating as to how he will earn the money for the plants.

'I could water Ezume-san's plants again' he thought, 'but that would take forever. I think I heard that one of our neighbors needs a babysitter, I could do that,'

The young boy continued with his thought until he was standing outside his door. He was about to turn the handle when something started screaming inside him, like a million red flags all going off at once. All the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he felt his face drain of colour. Something was wrong.

'I'm being ridiculous' he argued with himself, 'This is the same as any other day, there's no reason for this feeling'  
Mirou pushed passed the warning bells in his head as he opened the door.

"Okāsan! I'm home," he called out but there was no answer. This wasn't strange, as his mother was often absent by the time he got home. However the sickly feeling of dread never faded. He carefully stepped into his home, eyes scanning every inch of the room. It was dark, no lights were on, so he almost missed it. Strands of silver hair peeking out from behind the couch. Mirou starred at the silver strands with hesitation.

"...Okāsan?" He called out weakly. There was no answer. He slowly crept towards the couch, his heard pounding in his chest as his mind rased to come up with logical explanation. He peeked behind the couch and his heart stopped. It was his mother, laying perfectly still on the floor, her eyes open and unfocused, and her body completely still. She wasn't breathing.

"Okāsan!" He called out dropping to his knees. He tried to shake his mother awake, but she didn't budge.

"Okāsan wake up! Please! What's wrong!" He yelled, but she didn't answer. His vision started to get blurry, and that sinking feeling of dread took over his body. He raced out the door to bang on Ezume's. She opened the door with a yawn.

"Mirou what's going on-" she stopped, looking at the boy. He was a sobbing mess, unkempt hair, and oh God his eyes.

"Okāsan's not breathing and she won't wake up!" He cried. Ezume's stomach dropped. She knelt down to looks ot the boy, ignoring her own shaking to grasp at the young one's shoulders.

"Listen Mirou, I'm going to get to get help okay? I... I need you to stay with your mother. Can you do that?" Mirou nodded. He ran back to his apartment, taking his mother's hand in his. It was to cold.

"D-don't tou worry Okāsan, help will be here soon," he croaked, but he knew. He knew in the back of his mind that she was already gone. That she would be their to give him a smile, she wouldn't be their to do his hair, to tell him stories about his father. She was gone. The young boy cried over his mother's body, not knowing what else to to. Empty loneliness seeped into his bones as gasping sobs shook his body. She was fine this morning, she couldn't be gone. It's just wasn't possible. But she wouldn't wake up. She was gone, she's gone, she's gone she's gone she'sgoneshe'sgone-

Mirou jerked as a sudden hand on his shoulder snapped him back to reality. Behind him was a man, a jonin judging by his uniform. He had black hair and a beard, along with a cigarette in his mouth.  
"Hey kid, calm down, no one here's gonna hurt you," he spoke carefully as to not upset the boy. He glanced at the body briefly before turning back to the boy. "Why don't you come with me okay?"

"but Okāsan-" He stopped himself. He knew that his mother was gone, but he just could believe it. She was so happy this morning. Mirou let himself be guided out the door by the man, trying in vain to dry his tears. They sat outside his door were two more unfamiliar jonin stood. The man gave them a signal and they ventured into the small apartment. The man put out his cigarette and kneeled down in front of Mirou who was trying to stifle his sobs.

"What's your name kid?" He asked.

"...Mirou Hakuryū" He sniffled. The man smiled softly.

"Well it's nice to meet you Mirou. My name is Asuma, I'm a ninja here to help you. Can you tell me how old you are?"

"...I'm ten and a half" Mirou replied shakily. Asuma's smile faltered, knowing that he was so young and having to experience such loss. And his eyes.. no, this wasn't the time to be thinking about it.

"I'm going to take you to the hospital okay? They're just going to do some checkups and make sure that you're not hurt." Mirou nodded.

Asuma picked him up and quickly made his way to the hospital, trying to keep the boy's mind off of his mother.

"So what's your favorite activity?" he asked.

"I... I like gardening"

"Really? Do you have any plants that you look after?"

"I have a fern"

"Oh really? What type of fern?" They were close to the hospital, Asuma could see the building from where they were.

"Onychium Japonicum, the carrot top fern," Mirou murmured. Asuma was suprised to know that a ten year old knew the scientific name for the plant, however his suprised was short lived as he reached the hospital's front doors.

Asuma explained the situation to they Lady at the front desk, who then told them to wait in the waiting room. Asuma took out I little note pad as he sat down beside Mirou.

"This may be difficult but I need tou to answer some questions for me. Do you think you can do that?" He asked carefully. Mirou hesitated, but nodded.

"Okay. Can you tell me when you last saw your mother?"

"... This morning, before I went to school. She did my hair for me." Mirou felt himself starting to tear up again but quickly tried to wipe them away. Asuma wrote it down in his note book.

"Alright. There were a lot of bottles around the house. Did you mom drink often?"

"Okāsan used to, but she was getting better. She stopped staying out late and sometimes walked me to school," The young boy answered. Asuma wrote it down, relieved that the child wasn't a victim of neglect.

"Do you have any other family? Dad? Siblings? Grandparents?"

"No. It was always just me and Okāsan. I never knew my dad, but Okāsan told me some stories about him." Asuma wrote it down before putting away his notebook. They stayed quiet, with the exception of Mirou trying to wipe away his tears. His vision still felt fuzzy, and his eyes felt warm, however crying for an hour straight would do that to anyone. The doctor finally showed up with a clipboard in hand. She was a friendly looking lady, with kind eyes and a welcoming smile.

"Hello, you must be Mirou. I'm Dr. Oshiro. If you could come with me I need to do a checkup okay?" She gave him a reassuring smile that melted some of his anxieties away. Dr. Oshiro took Mirou to a hospital room and continued to do an hours worth of routine checkups that left Mirou feeling exausted and drained.

Asuma was taking him to the Hokage's office to discuss some sort of important issue, however Mirou was to tired to listen properly. Asuma knocked twice on the Hokage's office doors before hearing a faint "enter" Mirou, who's mind was finally catching up with reality, suddenly felt very nervous is the presence of the village's leader.

"Mirou, come and sit," the Hokage motioned towards the chair across from his desk. Mirou complied, feeling even more nervous than before.

"I'm very sorry for the loss of your mother. She was a good woman," he spoke. Mirou averted his eyes, not trusting them to not tear up again.

"However I need to speak to you about urgent matters. Asuma," the ninja in questioned straightened his stance. "You have no missions currently. I would like you to take Mirou to stay with you until further arrangements can be made." Asuma nodded unsurely, not understanding as to why this boy wasn't going to an orphanage. The Hokage continued.

"You both will meet back here tomorrow at noon to further settle Mirou's living arrangements."

__________________________

"Well, this is my home. make yourself comfortable."

Mirou looked around the house. It was much bigger than the small apartment he lived in, and it had a second floor. It was stylishly decorated with expensive looking furniture, things that Mirou could only dream of owning.

"You'll be staying in the guestroom. It's upstairs, first door on your right, and the bathroom is just down the hall" Mirou nodded and made his way upstairs. The bedroom was big, about as big as his old livingroom, and also had expensive looking furniture. He placed the only thing he brought with him, his coat, on a chair at the end of the bed before going back downstairs. Asuma was looking at his fridge with a scowl, cursing at his forgotten groceries. He glanced at his clock. It was just past seven at night and the kid probably hadn't eaten anything since lunch.

"You hungry?" Asuma asked a suprised Mirou. He nodded slightly and Asuma sighed.

"How do you feel about barbecue?"

The duo sat at a table in a place called Yakiniku Q, a barbecue place that Asuma spoke highly of. They ate in an awkward silence untill Asuma desided to try and get the boy to open up.

"Do you go to the academy?"he asked. Mirou looked startled from the sudden inquiry, but nodded, taking another peice of meet.

"So you want to be a ninja?" Mirou nodded a bit more enthusiastically. Asuma smiled, knowing that he was getting somewhere. He was about to ask another question when a familiar booming voice filled his ears.

"Asuma! What a coincidence to find you here! And with such youthfulness!"

Asuma let out a long groan and pinched the bridge of his nose. Mirou was in complete shock at the man standing before him. He had a bowl cut hairdo, a green one peice, and some of the biggest eyebrows he'd ever seen.

"Hey Guy," Asuma groaned, not wanting to deal with this today. Guy gave him his signature smile and thumbs up before turning his attention towards Mirou.

"And who might this bundle of youthfulness be!" He exclaimed loudly. Other people were starting to look in their direction and Mirou started to shrink in their gaze.

"M-Mirou Hakuryū," he answered meekly.

"Mirou! What a fantastically youthful name!" Guy proclaimed as he sat down beside Asuma who grumbled.

"What are you doing here Guy?"

"Well I was waiting for my rival! But he's on a mission so I'm all alone,"he explained, his personality doing a complete one eighty as he suddenly turned gloomy.

"But as fate would have it you would be here as well!" Guy said as his personality went back to normal. Asuma was about to bash his head against the table when he heard a soft giggle come from the other side of the table. He turned to see Mirou trying to hide a smile behind his hands. Asuma's gaze softened slightly before he continued to eat his food.

The trio stayed to 8:30, talking and swapping stories to try and make Mirou smile. That is untill they noticed how Mirou had started to nod off. Back at his house Asuma lent the young boy an old shirt that was many sizes to big to use a pajamas. Mirou was about to go up the stairs when he paused.

"Asuma-san... do you know how Okāsan, uh, you know..." Asuma frowned and took a deep breath.

"It was alchohol poisoning."

Mirou felt his insides twist.

"I see... thank you Asuma-san." He said quietly before going off to bed. He got under the covers, but couldn't find it in himself to sleep. He curled up into a ball and started to cry softly.

'But Okāsan said that she was getting better.'


	2. The eyes don't lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mirou is in for the shock of his life when he enters the Hokage's office the next day

It was early the next morning when Mirou awoke. Stretching as he got out of bed, he heard his joints pop with satisfaction.It was to early for children like him to be up, the sun was still rising over the horizon. However Mirou felt that his mind was filled with to much static, making sleep impossible. As he sleepily made his way downstairs, Mirou was suprised to se Asuma already up and making breakfast. Their eyes met and Asuma gave a small smile to his house guest.

"Good morning. I didn't expect you to be up yet," he said, turning back to his eggs.

"Couldn't sleep," the younger one mumbled, taking a seat at the table.

The two ate in silence until Asuma finished his breakfasts. He put their dishes away before turning back to the young boy with a sympathetic expression on his face.

"How are you feeling?"

Mirou paused. How was he feeling? He felt sad, he knew that for sure, but he was also angry. Angry at himself for not being able to do anything, and angry at his mother for dieing so suddenly. But being angry at his mother made him feel guilty, because she didn't choose to die, she didn't do anything to deserve his anger. And after that he felt fuzzy and numb from the lack of sleep. All of his emotions mashed together into a confusing jumble that he couldn't quite explain with words.

Thinking about it made his chest tighten, so he didn't.

"I don't know" he answered honestly.

The day slowly went by, with Asuma trying to get the boy to cheer up, and Mirou trying to distract himself from the crushing loneliness that squeezed at his heart.Some time later it was finaly noon and the two made their way back to the Hokage's office. They walked passed his aopartment at one point, causing Mirou's stomach to twist in anxiety as the images of his mother's body surfased in his mind. Ducking in his breath, the boy pushed that memory into the back of his mind and walked quickly away ffom his old home.

Finaly at the Hokage's office, Asuma knocked twice before entering, dropped Mirou off, and than left to wait outside the doors. The Hokage's had a troubled look on his face as Mirou entered causing the boy to worry.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," the Hokage said. Mirou said nothing.

"Everything will be explained soon. We're just waiting for another guest."

Mirou's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Another guest? Perhaps another caretaker? Or was he going to an orphanage? He was about to ask when their was a knock at the door. The Hokage let them in, and his eyes widened with shock. It was Sasuke Uchiha from his class. He looked from his classmate to the Hokage, trying to puzzle together what was going on. Sasuke was just as confused as Mirou. Being pulled out of class and summoned by the Hokage wasn't how he imagined his day going at all.

"Please take a seat both of you," said the Hokage. The two students complied, not sure as to what was going on. The Hokage's face suddenly became very serious, making the two nervous.

"What I have to say is very important, and untill today, was supposed to remain a secret. However certain circumstance have come to play and I have no choice but to reveal it to you."

Both Sasuke and Mirou were taken back, not expecting this at all. Mirou was trying to understand what was going on while Sasuke waited for the elder to finish explaining.

"Just over 11 years ago, a man, an Uchiha, accidently impregnated his friend out of wedlock." The Hokage started. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the mention of his clan.

"The elders of the clan were upset by this and tried to get the two married, however they refused and insisted that they were nothing more than friends. The Uchiha thought that it was completely inappropriate and instead opted to keep the birth of the child a secret in order to not tarnish their clan's name. The elders requested that I personally make sure that this secret was upheld, and I agreed. The Uchiha father was forbidden to visit his pregnant friend, and the young ones of the clan were kept in the dark, never to know of this other child." The Hokage paused, looking streight into Mirou's eyes.

"The father's name was Kenzou Uchiha. And the mother's name... was Aimi Hakuryū."

Mirou starred with wide eyes, completely caught off guard. However Sasuke didn't know who he was talking about. Mirou swallowed the lump forming in his throat.

"Wait... you mean... I'm-"

The Hokage nodded.

"Yes. You are not Mirou Hakuryū, but in fact Mirou Uchiha."

Now it was Sasuke's turn to be caught off guard. He looked back and forth between the Hokage and his classmate. This kid, Mirou, was his family? This random kid in his class shared his blood? His clan wasn't completely slaughtered? He couldn't wrap his head around it, it was just to crazy.

"W-why are you telling us now if it was such a big secret?" Asked Mirou, who's voice wobbled as he spoke. The Hokage took a breath and got out a folder from his desk. The two boys couldn't help but notice "Aimi Hakuryū" printed on the front in bold letters.

"We have reports saying that you, Mirou, have activated the Uchiha clan's dojutu; the Sharingan. Three jonin ninja, two hospital workers, and one on scene witness."

Mirou pursed his lips, instinctively bringing a hand to touch the place under his eye. He knew that his eyes felt off yesterday, but he just assumed that it was from crying. He was to consumed in grief to think much of it anyways. Sasuke however, was thinking something completely different. He stood up from his seat suddenly, startling his classmate.

"Proof"

The Hokage's eyes narrowed at the young Uchiha.

"I'm sorry?"

"I don't believe this. My clan is dead and now suddenly someone else is alive? Yoi can't possibly expect me to belive this.

I. Need. Proof." Sasuke growled out. The Hokage gave him a stern look, causing the young Uchiha to sit back down in his chair. However, as if he was expecting this reaction, the Hokage pulled out a birth certificate. On it was printed "Mirou Uchiha" in Aimi Hakuryū's hand writing.

"In most cases like this, the child would take the name of the parent who was outside the clan. However your name was put down as Uchiha in case you ever developed the Sharingan. Because of this, I technically have no jurisdiction to place you in a home, that right belongs to the Uchiha clan. However since neither of you are of legal age yet, I'm afraid that Mirou will have to move into the Uchiha compound."

Both of the boys looked at each other at the same time. Mirou was nervous. He had never talked to Sasuke until today, he was always so cold and distant towards everyone, never taking notice of anyone and always minding his own business. Sasuke was compleatly baffled. Up until today he thought that he was the last Uchiha. Now he suddenly had family? He couldn't believe it. He didn't believe it. It had to be some sort of rouse, or an attempt to spy on him. He had rarely taken notice of others, but whenever he briefly glanced at the boy he was always acting flustered or quiet, nothing like the proud Uchiha he had acome to know. They were both shaken out of their thoughts when the Hokage started speaking once again.

"It would be best to start moving right away so you can get it out of the way, you do have school tomorrow after all. Asuma will escort you both to Mirou's apartment to collect his things."

Sasuke looks like he wanted to protest, but kept his mouth shut, letting a frown settle across his face instead. He didn't like this arrangement at all, but wasn't going to argue with the Hokage. Besides, he knew the circumstances as to why Mirou was moving it, it was all the whole class was talking about. The two boys were dismissed and met Asume outside who than led them to Mirou's old apartment. The boy tried to stop his body from shaking as he neared his old home, but images of his mother's body kept invading his mind once again. He tried to shake it off and focus on something else.

He glanced around before his eyes rested upon his new family member, realizing that he didn't even know how they were related yet. He knew that they weren't brothers, so perhaps cousins? Or it was more likely that they were so distantly related that they barely even shared blood. What he didn't know though was that Sasuke was thinking the same thing. However unlike Mirou, he knew exactly were he was on the family tree. Kenzou Uchiha was his first cousin once removed, with both his father and Kenzou sharing the same grandfather. This made Mirou his second cousin. Not directly related but shockingly more related than he would have thought. They stood in front of the old apartment doors and Mirou started shaking again.

"You okay kid?" Asuma asked. "I can get your stuff for you if you're not-"

"I'm fine," came Mirous quick reply. Asuma didn't look convinced bit opened the door anyways.

"Your neighbor already collected your mother's things so you only need to worry about your own. I'll stay here and make sure no one bothers you" the jonin explained. He then turned to Sasuke. "You go help."

It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Sasuke's frowned deepened but he nodded anyways.

Mirou walked briskly past the living room, determined to keep his eyes forward and not look at the couch at all. Sasuke wrinkled his nose at the pungent smell of alcohol and rot that seeped from the walls of the tiny apartment. Mirou's room was small, barely a fraction of the size of Sasuke's and with just enough room for the both of them to stand.

"Your don't actually have to help me," Mirou said quietly. "I don't have a lot of things, so I should be quick."

Sasuke hummed in response and desided to sit on the bed rather than stand. He quickly glanced around the room to try and find out what this kid's deal was but found it difficult to do so with the lack of personal items. He didn't have a lot of money, that was obvious from the size of the apartment and lack of things, but he also noticed a plant by the window, an old cook book, and two home made looking stuffed animals, one of a dog and the other of a snake. With this he could tell that he liked plants, why else would he get it if he was tight on money. He knew how to cook, which made sense since he probably had an alcoholic mother judging by the smell. He probably knows how to sew, unless it was his mother which was unlikely, and he liked dogs and snakes. It wasn't a lot of info but it was enough for now.

Mirou finished packing his stuff in only ten minuts, which wasn't that impressive once you knew that all of his stuff fit into a single box. The trip to the Uchiha clan's compound was short, with both the apartment and the clan being near the edge of the village. Asuma dropped them off and than left to report back to the Hokage, leaving the two boys in an awkward silence as they continued towards the main house.

"You can take the guest room, upstairs last door to your right. Bathrooms the last door at the end of the hall." Sasuke said flatly. Mirou nodded and made his way towards the stairs before turning around.

"Thank you for letting me into your home," he said with a bow and quickly made his way up the stairs.

The room was much bigger than his old one. For one it actually had a closet, as well as enough space to fit at least 10 people. He unpacked most of his things and than took a break to sit on his new bed, the reality of the situation finally settling in. 'Yesterday morning I was making Okāsan breakfast. Now I'm an Uchiha living with my classmate who also turned out to be my lost family?' Mirou layed back on his bed, covering his eyes with his arm. It still hurt to much to think about his mother. He stayed like that untill six, when he finally decided to go back down stairs. Sasuke was in the kitchen and looked like he was about to make dinner. He glanced briefly at Mirou before grabbing an apron.

"Food?" He asked.

"Let me make it."

Sasuke raised a brow, making Mirou feel small under his gaze.

"It's the least I can do for invading your home, and I used to cook for Okāsan all the time," he tried to explain. Sasuke paused before shrugging and passed the boy the apron.

Mirou said a quick thanks before looking to see what food was in the kitchen. In hindsight, he probably should have asked were all of the cooking stuff was stored, however it was to late now. Mirou looked in the fridge and in the cupboards before deciding to make Gyudon. It was a simple recipe that shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes. Mirou felt nervous as he cooked, Sasukes eyes never leaving him for second to make sure that he didn't put anything strange in his food. The beef bowl was finished on time and the two boys sat down to eat. The air around them was tense but none if them spoke a word.

Mirou felt like a fish out of water, not knowing what to do or what to say in this situation. In fact, the more he thought about it the more his situation looked completely ridiculous. His mother and father were forbidden from seeing each other, his real identity was a secret from everyone including himself, and now he lives with a secret relative who he also goes to school with.

Sasuke on the other hand, desided not to think about it at all and just ignore the tension all together. They finished their dinner in silence and Mirou offerd to wash the dishes.

"You don't know where they go," Sasuke countered without looking away from the sink. Mirou didn't want to argue and instead excused himself to his room. Exhaustion seeped into his bones as he opened to door to his bedroom, only briefly remembering to set his alarm before getting into bed. The lack of sleep from the day before finally caught up with him as he closed his eyes and let his exausted body rest.

From downstairs, Sasuke waited until he heard the sound of the door closing to let out a long sigh. Putting away the dishes, he sat back down at the table with his head in his hands. Today's events had left him feeling so lost. There was a kid in his house who was supposed to be his family, but he never knew about it until now because of some weird coincidence. How was he supposed to feel about this? Happy that he had some family left alive? Angry that the Hokage had kept this a secret? Afraid that Itachi would kill him as well? He shook that last thought out of his mind. Sasuke refused to believe that he felt anything towards the boy at all. It didn't matter weather or not he was the only family he had left, he had only just spoken to Mirou today. Pushing all of these thought to the back of his mind, Sasuke put up his emotionless face and also went to bed, to tired to think about it any longer.

The next morning was, for a lack of better words, incredibly awkward. Mirou had gotten up first to make breakfast as he had planned, quickly making some Oyakodon just before Sasuke came downstairs. Breakfast was just as tense as dinner and it was starting to stress Mirou out. He was used to ether being alone or having some friendly chat while eating, but the tense atmosphere was starting to eat at his skin. Luckily, after breakfast they were each able to do their morning routines separately. Mirou tried to put his hair up like his mother did, however after failing for the third time he gave up and put it in a simple low ponytail instead. Mirou was done first and waited for Sasuke by the door. The other boy was finished within five minuts and the two made their way to school.

"You didn't have to wait for me," Sasuke said, giving away no emotion. Mirou's face turned a light shade of red and he looked away, obviously embarrassed.

The rest of the day went by in a blur for Mirou. Today was a catch up day for the class, and mirou had to work on the things that he missed during... well... he didn't want to think about that. During the walk back to his new home, he couldn't help notice the eyes and whispers from the crowd that followed both him and Sasuke. He glanced at the other, but he seemed impassive so Mirou tried to block them out as well.

The reast of the day was the same as the day before, the same silent walk to the house, the same unpacking that he didn't finish the day before, and the same awkward dinner. The only difference being that Sasuke made dinner, omisubi with okaka and tomatoes, and Mirou washed the dishes. The boy sighed as his back hit the bed, hopping that it wouldn't be like this for the next seven and a half years that he had to live here.


	3. Risky waters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mirou has to deal with Anri, and Sasuke comes to a realization.

It had been a week since Mirou had moved in with the young Uchiha, and everything had been going smoothly so far. They still didn't talk much with each other, only when necessary, but they had found themselves in a comfortable routine after the first few days. Whoever woke up first made breakfast and diner, whoever woke up last did the dishes. After school they would go do their own things untill dinner and than go to bed. It wasn't ideal for either of them, but it took a large chunk of the tension that was stressing Mirou out of the equation.

Mirou sat in front of a mirror that was hanging on his wall, focussing on his eyes. He was trying to figure out how to activate his sharingan, seeing as he didn't realize he had awakened it the first time around. The only problem was he didn't know how he awakened it the first time. In fact, he didn't know anything about the sharingan or anything about the clan that he was supposed to be a part of. He desperately wanted to ask Sasuke but couldn't bring himself to do it. For one, he didn't want to bring up any bad memories. If someone tried to ask about his mother, he was sure that he would break down crying on the spot. Mirou frowned and put away that thought for another day. Secondly, Mirou was scared. What if he asked and Sasuke made fun of him for not being able to use his sharingan? He knew that it was stupid and Sasuke probably wouldn't do that, but ever since he found out about his true heritage he truly wanted to be a part of it. Mirou gave a tired sigh and desided to call it a night before his doubts took over his mind.

The next day at the academy, Iruka-Sensei explained that he was going to teach the class about the body replacement technique. Mirou was obviously exited as he always was when he got to do something physical. He was never good with books or tests, but always excelled during practice. Outside, Iruka-Sensei had set up multiple logs to practice substituting with. He than gave a demonstration. Going over the proper hand signs, tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake, he replaced the log with a poof of smoke. His students looked at their teacher in amazement before partnering off to practice themselves.

Mirou was partnered up with a blonde kid who got in trouble a lot. He sometimes saw him painting stuff on the Hokage monument's faces only to be chased by ninja, however he had never talked to him before. Mirou went first much to his partner's dismay. He focused his chakra, and made the hand signs tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake, but nothing happened. He was briefly distracted by the sounds of squealing girls. He looked towards the noise to see Sasuke being surrounded by his fangirls, having done the new jutsu on his first try. With newfound determination, Mirou tried again. No luck. Finally, on the third try, he replaced the log with a poof of smoke, leaving him a bit disoriented. He beamed at his accomplishment before replacing the log once again, putting it back in it's place for his partner.

The blond kid, as it turned out, was really bad at this. He must have tried it at least ten times, but nothing happened. Mirou saw that he was starting to get frustrated and desided to step in to help.

"it's easier if you try and focus your chakra on the log," he offered. The blond looked at him with suprise, but than gave him a grin and continued trying to do the jutsu. It didn't work the first time, but on his second try he finally did it, or at least he kinda did. Instead of their log, he switched with the log from the next team over. The other team was annoyed, however the blond was to cheery to care.

"thanks for the advice! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!" The blond said loudly.

"It's no problem, I'm Mirou Ha-Uchiha. It's nice to meet you," Mirou smiled. Naruto looked stunned before narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Uchiha? You're related to the teme?" He asked, pointing in Sasuke's direction. Mirou nodded, confused. Naruto seemed to narrow his eyes even further before shaking his head.

"Nope, no way. You can't be related to the teme, your way to nice." He stated while crossing his arms. Mirou looked at him with suprise before laughing behind his hand.

"Sorry but it's true," he replied, still stifling a laugh. Naruto was about to argue again, but the sight of Mirou's eyes detracted him.

"wow your eyes are different colours?! that's so cool!" he exclaimed loudly. Mirou felt himself becoming embarrassed and instinctively brought a hand up to his eye.

"thanks, I think your goggles are cool to,"

Naruto brought his hand up to proudly adjust his goggles at the compliment.

"don't get to used to it, once I become a ninja I'm gonna replace it with my very own forehead protector! belive it!"

By the time it was lunch Mirou was still in a happy mood from his previous encounter with the blond. He desided to sit alone today instead of with his overly worried friends. And while he appreciated his friends concern for him, they were starting to suffocate him. Shikamaru was fine, but Kiba had no idea what he was doing and Choji was to kind for his own good. Sighing in contempt, Mirou leaned against a tree to eat, with Iruka-Sensei having let the class eat outside because of their training. He was about to eat his lunch when two shadows loomed over him. Mirou had to hide a grimace as his eyes met those of Anri Ono and Emiru Takenaka.

"Are you so desperate for friends that you desided to talk to that loud mouth? What a joke, right Emiru?"

"but it's perfect Anri, they can both be jokes together." They both snickered while Mirou frowned. They don't usually bring other people into the teasing

"that's not very nice Anri," he said. The two stopped laughing, Anri looking at him sharply while Emiru looked impassive.

"listen here half n' half," she hissed. "just because you're an Uchiha now doesn't make you any better than you were before. You will never be as good as Sasuke so don't go acting all high and mighty." She started to walk away but stopped to look back at him, a venomous look taking form on her face.

"besides, you're nothing more than a bastard child anyways."

Mirou was speeches, even Emirou looked like he was frowning. The boy bit his lip harshly as he watched the two walk away. He couldn't believe that she had taken it that far. Mirou was young, but he knew what it ment to be called a bastard. He bit his lip harder to the point were he could draw blood. He felt like he wanted to cry, but as usual, he tried to push those emotions away, instead focusing on his lunch. His once happy mood was left as an empty shell.

The walk home was one of the longest walks of Mirou's life. Today's events had left him feeling like dirt and he just wanted to go to his room. Anri had been teasing him for three years now, but it was always over something stupid like clothes or the colour of his eyes. Sometimes it got to him, but he was always able to brush it off afterwards. But this time was different. She attacked him were it hurt and clung on tight. Mirou loved his mother and he enjoyed being an Uchiha, but he knew now that his birth was a mistake and he could never truly be a part of the clan. He could never truly be a part of a family again. Anri knew this, and it hurt so much.

Mirou went to his room imidiently when the two got home, not wanting to start any small talk. He placed his things on the ground and sat in front of the mirror, looking into his eyes as he once again tried to activate his sharingan. He hated looking into his eyes now. His left eye was black like his father's, like Sasuke's, like the Uchiha. It reminded him of the family he never had. His right eye was almost white, contrasting his left. It reminded him that he will never be a complete Uchiha, but it also reminded his of his mother and the family that he had. The family that he had lost. Mirou tried to push these thought away, not wanting to think about them anymore and focus on his sharingan.

Time passed and the young boy was starting to get frustrated. Mirou was typically a very patient person, but his lack of progress mixed in with the day's earlier events were starting to take their toll. He let out a short breath of frustration.

"why isn't this working? I activated my sharingan before, why can't I do it now? What am I doing wrong?

"you're not focusing enough chakra into your eyes."

mirou whipped around to see Sasuke standing by his door.

"S-Sasuke! What are you doing here?" he asked with a squeak.

"dinners been ready for ten minuts. You didn't come down," The other replied impassively. Mirou looked away, feeling guilty for being late. Sasuke sighed and entered the room, standing next to his cousin.

"you could have just asked you know," he stated. Mirou looked more guilty.

"I didn't want to bother you, it was stupid."

Sasuke frowned. It wasn't stupid at all. In fact, the fact that he thought that asking him was stupid in itself was stupid. Sasuke had training, he knew about the sharingan before his was awakened. Mirou, however, didn't. He didn't have any training or knowledge about this beforehand. So when he awakened his sharingan, he had no idea what was happening. Sasuke's face turned more stern.

"do it."

Mirou blinked owlishly at him.

"do what I just told you to do," he clarified. Mirou nodded and closed his eyes, trying to gather his chakra. It was slightly harder than he thought it would be, but than he started to feel his eyes tingle with chakra. He opened his eyes and stared at his reflection. Instead of his normal eye color, they were a deep shade of red, each with a single tomoe in them.

"I-I did it!" he exclaimed with a grin on his face. He turned to Sasuke and gave him a genuine smile, one that he hadn't had on his face since his mother was still alive.

"Thank you Sasuke, I really appreciate it."

Sasuke could only stare into those red eyes. So many times he had seen those eyes in a negative light. Hatred, Sorrow, anger, but those same red eyes were looking back at him with a genuine warmth that he had yet to see with his clans power. And he had caused that warmth. It gave him a funny feeling in his chest and a ghost of a smile made it's way onto his lips.

"yeah, sure."

The walk to the academy the next day was stressful. Mirou didn't want to see Anri today after what she did the day before, but he also needed to go to school to become a ninja. How far was she going to go with her teasing? Was it still teasing, or did it cross a line over into tormenting? He didn't want to know, he just wanted to be left alone. As they reached the Academy gates, Mirou paled at the sight of his friends Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, and Naruto sneaking out the classroom window. They were leaving him alone in class with Anri. His heart started to beat loudly in his chest. He couldn't be alone, at least not today. He glanced Sasuke before getting an idea.

"Hey, uh, Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"Can I - and only if you want me to! Can I sit beside you today?" Mirou asked nervously. Sasuke glanced at him, slightly confused by the sudden ask, but quickly shifted back to his usual cool demeanor.

"sure."

Mirou sighed in relief. He took a deep breath as he entered the classroom, determined to not talk to or even see his tormentor. When he say down beside Sasuke, he felt dozens of eyes burning holes into his head. Mirou wasn't shy, not at all, but the knowledge of so many people looking at him at once was starting to make him nervous. He had completely forgotten about Sasuke's flock of fangirls.

Class started soon after, causing most of the girls to calm down much to Mirou's relief. However his relief was short lived, because as soon as lunch started fangirls started surrounding himself and Sasuke. Some of the girls were polite, just staring in admiration or trying to give Sasuke food. However some of the girls were more... aggressive than others. The most noticeable being a pink haired girl, Ino, and Anri. Mirou had completely forgotten that Anri also liked Sasuke. Their eyes met and Anri smirked, strutting over to their desks with a glint in her eyes.

"So Mirou, aren't you related to Sasuke?" She asked in a tone that made the boy shiver on a bad way.

"y-yes."

"so you've been inside his house?"

"Yeah," Mirou was unsure were these questions were going and it was making him nervous.

"but I heard that you weren't a full Uchiha."

Mirou's breath hitched, now knowing her plan. She wanted to try and hurt him in front of an audience to get a reaction. She was so desperate for a reaction out of him she would taunt him in front of witnesses. He chose not to answer but it only made Anri smirk wider.

"your silence speaks volumes. I bet your just mooching off his money." Mirou's eyes widened.

"N-no! I would neve-"

"I bet you can't even tell us how your related."

"Well I-"

"We're cousins." Said Sasuke who had been listening to the conversation. Out of all his fangirls, he disliked Anri the most. She was too loud, entitled, and naive, and was constantly getting on his nerves. However he didn't speak out because of all that, he just didn't like the way she was talking about his clan. They way she was talking would make you think that they were a bunch of savages who couldn't even keep track of their family members. It wasn't that he saw how much it hurt his cousin, or how he saw him clenching his fists so hard they might bleed, or about how he heard how Anri was talking to him the day before. Nope, it wasn't that at all.

the croud of girls soon disperses, making Mirou give out a breath of relife.

"Thanks, Sasuke."

"Hn."

The rest of the day fortunately went on without any other stressful events. Naruto, Kiba, Choji, and Shikamaru were caught skipping class shortly after lunch and as a consequence the class was having a test on the tools of a shinobi tomorrow. As the two boys got home, Mirou felt a small bubble of regret form in his chest. He was feeling slightly guilty about getting Sasuke mixed up in his problems.

"you didn't have to help me, with Anri I mean." he said softly. Sasuke said nothing, but stared at his cousin who refused to look at his face. "She's completely right. I'm not a real Uchiha."

Sasuke didn't know what to say, it just didn't make any sense to him. On his birth certificate it said "Uchiha", and he activated his sharingan, what other proof did he need? As if reading his thoughts, Mirou let out a hollow ghost of a smile.

"It's true. I grew up outside the clan, I didn't know who my father was, I didn't even know who I was until it had to be spelled out out a peice of paper." He let out a small breath, trying to get his emotions under control. He didn't want Sasuke of all people to see him like that. "I don't even wear the family Crest. I'm a part of a family I never had."

This... wasn't what Sasuke was expecting at all. He knew that Anri's words were starting to gnaw at Mirou, but hadn't expected him to be this hurt by them. Of course he was an Uchiha, It didn't matter weather or not he wasn't aware of it, he was still family. Something in Sasuke's mind clicked. He was family. The idea was so foreign to him that it hadn't registered untill now. The reason for his revenge was because of his slaughtered clan, but mirou was here, living and breathing and alive. And he had been stupidly pushing away the only real family he had left.

Sasuke stood straight and walked up to the boy. He placed a hand on his shoulder, causing Mirou to look straight into his eyes.

"Mirou, you are an Uchiha. You're... family. And no one can change that. Not you, not me, and not Anri."

Those words were all it took. A single tear rolled off Mirou's cheek, than another, than another until he was fully crying. He tried to smile through his stifled sobs, he was just so damn happy.

"sorry," he said while wiping away his tears, slightly embarrassed that he had just cried in front of Sasuke. "It's just, it feels nice to be a part of a real family."

Sasuke hummed patting his shoulder before walking away to his room. He had desided, no more pushing him away. Tomorrow after school, he was going to teach Mirou how to be a real Uchiha.


	4. Burn away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mirou tries to learn the Uchiha fireball jutsu, while Kiba and the others become increasingly worried for their friend.

It was after school the next day, and Sasuke was sitting in his room with a scroll. The scroll was the Uchiha's Great Fireball Technique. For the Uchiha, you aren't considered an adult without mastering it. Sasuke himself learned it at the age of 6, and now de desided that Mirou was going to learn it as well. He got up and walked across the hall to Mirou's room, knocking before entering. The younger boy was sitting on his bed finishing his homework, which made no sense since to him at all, since there was a perfectly good desk three feet away.

"you busy?" Sasuke asked.

"No, I just finished. why, do you need something?" Mirou questioned. Sasuke responded with a "follow me" gesture and Mirou complied.

the pair walked in silence down to the dock. Mirou was looking at his cousin in confusion, not knowing why Sasuke wanted to talk with him all of a sudden. When they made it down to the beginning of the dock, Sasuke handed him the scroll, which Mirou took with wide eyes.

"wait, this has the Uchiha clan crest. Isn't this an Uchiha clan jutsu?"

"Hn. You said you wanted to be an Uchiha. So let's make a deal."

"A deal?"

"if you can complete that Jutsu in two weeks or less, you'll get to wear the Uchiha Clan Crest."

Mirou nodded vigorously and shook Sasuke's hand, sealing the deal. He than sat down on the grass, imidiently opening the scroll and soaking up all the information. Sasuke left soon after to get back to school work, leaving Mirou to his own devices. The young boy studied the scroll for a while, re-reading it over and over again to make sure that he got all the information correctly. After he finished, Mirou placed the scroll carefully on the ground and made his way to the edge of the dock as to not accidentally burn anything. He performed the hand signs, boar and tiger, before blowing a flame from his mouth. It was small, no larger than a baseball, but it was still better tha nothing and that was enough for the younge Uchiha.

He practised untill the sun started to set and it was time for him to make dinner, the flame very slowly growing in size over the course of the last few hours. They went from being the side of a baseball to the size of a basketball. However, his progress severely diminished from there.

Over the next two days, Mirou had little to no progress with the jutsu. He knew that he simply didn't have enough lung capacity to make a larger flame, however he also knew that their was something that he wasn't getting to make the Jutsu work. Finally, after the second day of no progress, he desided to approach Sasuke about his problem.

"Do you think you could give me a demonstration of the Jutsu?" He asked timidly. "I'm kind of stuck right now and I think that if I watched someone else do it than it would help."

Sasuke shrugged but agreed, walking down to the dock with Mirou in tow. When at the end, he did the proper hand signs and made a fireball the size of a small house. Mirou stared in awe of the power that his cousin held, wishing that he could do the same. however it didn't help much with his own troubles at all. He stared at the Crest on his cousin's back before getting an idea.

"The sharingan has incredible clarity of perception, right?" He asked. Sasuke nodded.

"And it can see someone else's chakra?"

"to an extent, yeah," Sasuke answered, now knowing what the other was planning to do.

"want me to do it again?" he asked.

"yes please."

Mirou activated his sharingan as Sasuke once again performed the fireball jutsu. He concentrated his eyes on Sasuke and watched as Sasuke's chakra flickered in and out of his vision. From what he could tell, it went to his lungs, throat, and mouth. Finally understanding what he was doing wrong, Mirou thanked Sasuke and tried the jutsu once again. He focused his chakra into the same places that Sasuke had before once again doing the Jutsu. The difference was amazing, with the fireball now being the size of a small boulder. However Mirou's small victory would be thwarted by a sudden coughing fit caused by the strain of using chakra on his loungs for the first time.

The young boy practised untill the setting sun made the water as warm in colour as his fire. His progress was slow, and his mouth was burned, but despite that he felt proud of overcoming his obstacle. After dinner, Mirou was putting away the dishes when Sasuke noticed how burned the area around his face was. He frowned and turned to the other boy.

"your face is all burned. Don't push yourself," he said while getting some bandages out of a cupboard and handing them to Mirou. The other Uchiha smiled sheepishly and mumbled a small "sorry" before taking the bandages. The two soon went to bed without a word a drifted off to sleep.

In the dead of night, A young boy crept down the stairs of his home and carefully made his way outside. Mirou gave out a breath of relief as he closed the front doors, glad that he hadn't awakened the other. He made his way back down to the docks with determination. He was so close to completing the jutsu he could feel it.

This wasn't the first time he had done this. He had also snuck out the night before, staying up the entire night to try and overcome his speed bump. In fact, staying in late and sneaking out to practice was something that he also did while while living with his mother, however it was rare. It only ever happened if their was ether a test of the subject the next day or just something his was having a lot of difficulty with.

He practised the entire night, only returning back to the house when the sky started to grow lighter in colour. All the while he never noticed the eyes of someone watching him in dismay.

"Man you look like death," Said Kiba as his eyes layed on his friend. Mirou did in fact look horrid, his eyes were darkened with bags, his hair unkempt and in a very messy bun, and his mouth was still covered in bandages and burns from the jutsu.

"I'm fine, honestly. I just had some trouble sleeping last night," Mirou said, however his voice sounded as tired as he looked.

Kiba looked at his friend skeptically but reluctantly let it go for now. It wasn't untill Iruka-Sensei had handed out some sheet work about the early history of Konoha did Kiba bring it up again.

"Are you sure you're okay? I mean you've been acting different ever since..." He trailed off, not quite knowing how to address the situation. Mirou tried to smile, but his mouth hurt to much from the burns.

"It's... been hard. I don't really like to think about it for to long, but I'm getting better." He paused to look at his friend in the eyes.

"Thank you Kiba. You've been such a good friend to me, I honestly don't know what I'd do without you." He said with a slight smile. Kiba turned away to hide his embarrassment caused by the mushy compliment.

"S-sure thing man, It's no problem," He stammered. Mirou was about to ask what was wrong when the shadow of their teacher loomed over them, making the two boys go pale.

"Something you'd like to share with the class?" He asked accusingly.

"No Iruka-Sensei!" The boys said in unison. The teacher walked away with satisfaction while Kiba and Mirou let out a breath of relief before giggling at each other.

After Mirou finished his working on his paper, he glanced around the room out of boredom. Most of the class had already finished the paper before him, and so most people were just silently goofing off. One of the people he noticed was Anri Ono, who was unsurprisingly still working on her paper. She may be witty when talking with others, but her grades were within the bottom quarter of the class. Mirou couldn't help but notice that the girl hadn't looked his way the entire day. In fact, it was as if she was actively avoiding him. Mirou was filled with joy at the idea that his torment was finally over, but he wasn't about to get his hopes up.

The other person that he took notice of was Emiru Takenaka. He was one of the first to finish, which was once again unsurprising. He was one of the smartest in the class. Emiru turned his head, his eyes catching Mirou's who stilled in his seat. A small almost invisible smile made it's way onto Emiru's lips, only to disappear as fast as it came. They both turned away from each other, desiding that their desks were more interesting at the moment. Mirou didn't know what to think of it. Emiru, a friend on Anri and someone who picked on him for years, had just smiled at him?

'I probably just imagined it,' He reasoned with himself, 'their's no way he would have smiled at me. It was probably just a condescending smirk or something.'

Mirou had forgotten about the incident by the time it was lunch, instead focusing on trying to stay awake. Staying up one night was easy, but he had also snuck out the night before, meaning that staying awake was nearly impossible. Finally, during the middle of lunch, he lost his battle with sleep, causing his head to hit the table with a soft thunk. His friends stopped their conversation to look at their friend with varying degrees of worry. Shikamaru wasn't as worried as the others, but was still obviously concerned. Choji was much more worried, but still had full confidence that his friend could pull through this. And Kiba, well...

Kiba had known Mirou since they were only four because of their mother's being friends, and so he had known him the longest. He knew that Mirou had a tendency to hide his true emotions as to not worry others, but he had also been one of the few to see the full extent of those hidden emotions. 

It was three years ago and this older boy tried to show off by beating up some of the younger kids. It went on for a couple of days, but the two weren't all that worried. Then he desided to beat up Kiba. Mirou absolutely lost it once he found out. He screamed at the older boy, calling him out on his crap and almost made him cry. It was terrifying, but also made the young Inuzuka have a great deal of respect for him. Mirou was so distraught and guilt ridden over what he had done afterwards that he cried. Kiba didn't want his friend to fall down that hole again, but at the same time he didn't know how to help him, and it frustrated the hell out of him.

Kiba nudged Mirou awake as class started up again, causing the other to grow flustered over falling asleep during class. Kiba kept on stealing glances at his raven haired friend for the rest of the day, keeping track of anything that looked out of the ordinary. No matter what Mirou said, he wasn't okay. He was bottling up his emotions just like he did before, and he was going to overflow unless he let himself free. Kiba may not be book smart, but he knew his friend like the back of his hand. And he refused to let him fall again.

Mirou felt on edge as he walked back home with Sasuke, and he didn't know why. There was no reason for him to feel like this, he and Sasuke were no longer tence with each other, he wasn't missing anything with school, and yet the feeling still remained. He was about to push it aside as him just being tired when Sasuke started talking.

"You've been sneaking out at night. Don't do that anymore."

Mirou felt his heart drop to his stomach, eyes wide. He didn't think that Sasuke knew, he thought that he'd been quiet.

"...How long have you known," be asked quietly.

"Two days."

His heart sunk further into his body.

"Oh... Why didn't you try to stop me before?"

Sasuke paused before answering.

"I didn't think it was a problem, but then you fell asleep during class."

Mirou stayed silent, feeling incredibly guilty for making someone worry about him. He looked down at the ground as they continued walking. 'Sasuke's probably mad at me' He thought. He knew that he shouldn't have done it, he had been given two weeks to finish the jutsu, but he just got impatient.

When they crossed the Uchiha threshold, Sasuke let out a sigh and turned to face the young boy.

"I'm not mad at you." he clarified, "I just think- no, I know that your putting yourself through too much for something that you have lots of time to do. Just let yourself rest, you kinda need sleep to live."

Mirou starred at him for a while before a smile broke out on his face, visibly confusing the young Uchiha. Mirou saw his confusion and tries to explain.

"It's just that whenever we talk for this long it's because you're lecturing me about something," He said with a chuckle.

Sasuke shrugged before smirking.

"then try not to do anything that will make me lecture you."

Mirou lightly laughed before the two made their way back to the house.

"well now I know that if I need to talk to you I just need to do something stupid enough to get you to lecture me," Mirou teased. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"As if you could ever do something intentionality stupid. You're way to polite."

"What are you talking about. I do stupid stuff all the time!"

"name one stupid thing that you've intentionality done."

"well I stayed up all those nights just yesterday."

"Those don't count. You didn't know that I knew, so you didn't know that I would lecture you."

"well then, I... uh... "

Mirou tried to think of other things that he did that were stupid and intentional but he was coming up blank. Sasuke smirked wider at his cousin's silence, knowing that he had won. As the two entered the house, Mirou was about to go back to practicing by the docs when he was stooed by Sasuke's hand.

"Go to bed," He said, the previous lighthearted joking atmosphere now gone.

"But I-"

"I won't say it again."

Sasuke's tone left no room for argument and Mirou sighed, knowing that he was to tired to argue anyways. He shuffled towards the stairs when Sasuke's voice stopped him once again.

"And no going out at night ether, I will know."

"I know nii-san."

They both stilled, staring at each other, their brains not quite catching up to their ears. Then Mirou's face turned as red as a cherry and he ran upstairs, almost slamming the door behind him. Sasuke was still rooted to his place in the floor. Did Mirou actually think of him as an older brother? nearly two weeks ago, Sasuke would have ignored such a slip up. However he couldn't help feel a small twinge of pride in himself for having such a title. It was still embarrassing though and he was glad that it didn't happen in front of people. He would never hear the end of it.

As the day passed and it was Time to make dinner, Sasuke knew that he would have to wake up the other boy once it was time to eat. He made a simple recipe of miso soup, then went up to Mirois room to wake him up. He knocked on he door before entering, and found Mirou curled up in a ball on his bed. Even though he was sleeping, he still looked exausted. And so, Sasuke desided to let him sleep, just this once.


	5. The dam breaks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiba finds out that Mirou is hiding secrets, and Mirou can't take it anymore.

The next morning was the most uncomfortable morning the two young Uchiha had ever had. Mirou absolutely refused to look into his cousin's eyes, way to embarrassed from the night before to do so. Sasuke was surprisingly the one who was trying to make conversation, however it was mostly just to make the younger boy more flustered for his own amusement.

Mirou's face was still red during the entire first half of school, causing his friends to look at him with both worry and confusion. At first Mirou didn't want to tell them, it was just to embarrassing and be knew that they were going to laugh at him. However by the time it was lunch they still persisted on asking questions.

"Come on man! You've been looking like a tomato all day!" Exclaimed Kiba.

"We just want to know what's wrong," Choji added.

Mirou wanted to tell them that he was fine and not to worry, but then Shikamaru gave him a knowing look. He was incredibly smart after all, so it was no wonder that he had figured it out. Mirou sighed, knowing that if he didn't tell them, Shikamaru would.

"Fine I'll tell you, but don't laugh at me," Mirou said in an attempted serious tone. The others nodded, confused by the strange seriousness of their usually cheerful friend. However before Mirou could explain, Kiba started jumping to conclusions.

"Did that Sasuke bastard do something to you?" He asked suspiciously. Mirou was caught off guard my the question, having no idea where it was coming from. Just then he remembered the bandages around his mouth, instinctively touching them with his hand. Kiba suddenly looked ticked off and pointed at the young boy.

"Aha! Your face is all burned up! I knew it!"

"Kiba-"

"That bastard is gonna pay! never thought that he would go off and burn someone!"

"Kiba let me explain-"

"Just who does he think he is! I'm gonna rip his head off-"

"KIBA!"

Kiba stopped his rant to look at Mirou, who was caught off guard by his own outburst and covered his mouth with his hands.

"It's nothing like that Kiba, let me explain," he said in a much quieter voice. Kiba grumbled but sat back down in his seat, waiting for his friend to continue.

"Well, I was super tired, and Sasuke was telling me to go to bed-" Kiba grumbled at this."-and before I knew what I was saying... well I... Uh.. I cld hm nssn..." Mirou explained, training off at the end so no one else could hear.

"What was that? We couldn't hear you," Shikamaru said with a smirk. Mirou sent him a small flair before clearing his throat.

"I said that I... called him nii-san."

Their was a long silence. Then, Kiba turned away shaking, almost unable to control his laughter. Choji was soon to follow, and Shikamaru just smirked. Mirou was somehow able to turn a brighter shade of red and hid his head in his hands.

"You said you wouldn't laugh!" He whined. Kiba slowly got the laugh of of his system, whipping a tear from his eye.

"S-sorry hah, It's just wheeze, the thought of you of all people calling Sasuke nii-san is just so-" He was unable to finish his sentence before bursting out into a new fit of laughs. Mirou shook his head, his hands still covering his face.

"I know, I know. It's just so embarrassing! I can't even look him in the eyes anymore. And I think he might be teasing me about it to."

Their was another pause as both Kiba and Choji's laughter faded into small giggles, and finally disappeared into teasing smiles.

"So do you?" Shikamaru suddenly asked. Mirou looked at him confused.

"Do I what?"

"See him as a brother?"

Mirou didn't really need to think about it before answering. He had thought to himself the same question before going to sleep the night before.

"I'm not sure." He answered. "I never had any siblings before, so I don't know what it's like. And besides, I was super tired. I probably didn't even know what I was saying."

Kiba seemed to be in thought, taking apart what Mirou said piece by piece. His brows furrowed in confusion as something that his friends claim didn't make sense to him.

"Why were you so tired? I mean, you looked like crap last Monday, and you don't usually get tired unless..." His eyes widened in realization before narrowing in both concern and seriousness.

"Are you actually sleeping?"

The question made Mirou freeze in his spot. He didn't expect Kiba to find out this quickly. He knew that Shikamaru knew, but he was hoping that Kiba wouldn't notice for at least a couple more weeks. Mirou didn't answer, and that was all the conformation Kiba needed.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that it was getting this bad?" He asked. There was obvious annoyance in his tone, but also a deep worry and fear. The last time Mirou went days without sleeping was after his mother started drinking heavily, causing Mirou to worry over her and neglect himself. The young boy was unable to meet his oldest friend in the eyes. Both Choji and Shikamaru stepped away from the conversation, knowing that there was nothing that they could do. Kiba knew Mirou better than anyone else, and he was the only one who could make Mirou talk right now.

"I'm sorry." Mirou mumbled. Guilt and shame started to eat away at his insides. Kiba took a deep breath. The last thing we wanted was to get mad right now. He placed a hand on his friends shoulder, forcing him to look into his eyes.

"Mirou, are you okay?"

No, he wasn't Okay. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry out until his lungs shattered. He wanted to tell him about how everything was falling apart. He wanted to not feel so horrible, he wanted to sleep without seeing his mother's body, he just wanted to feel okay again. Mirou clenched his fists tightly, his eyes burned with unshead tears. I stream of air was painfully trapped in his lungs, begging to be let out in a scream.

But he didn't.

He pushed all of these emotions down into the dark part of his mind. He wouldn't allow himself to fall apart so easily. Mirou looked at his friend with a plastic smile.

"I'm fine."

Kiba frowned, removing his hand from Mirou's shoulder. The look of disappointment in his eyes sent a chill down Mirou's spine. Kiba crossed his arms and looked away, unable too look at the horribly fake smile that his friend had plastered on his face like a shield.

"No. You're not."

Mirou felt a part of himself break apart inside. Kiba wouldn't even look at him anymore. He'd messed up bad.

'He wouldn't want to be friends with a liar now would he?' A suspiciously feminine voice in his head called out.

'Look at you. Your good friend I'd trying to help you and you pushed him away'

'I bet that he'd never treat you this way'

Mirou tried to block out the voices, but they just kept coming back with more things to say, picking the boy apart without putting him back together. He looked at Kiba, his smile faltering slightly.

'I'm sorry'  
________________________

It was a horrible feeling, guilt. It twists and festers in your gut until it spreads and infects your chest, making you feel as if someone was carving away at your insides. That's exactly how Mirou felt. Guilt was slowly spreading through out his body as the day flew by, unable to get Kiba's disappointed face out of his head. He didn't know why he couldn't just tell him, he was his oldest friend, he would understand, he would help. But he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Mirou was just so used to doing things on his own that he felt like a burden any time he had to ask for help, even when he obviously needed it.

Mirou was quiet for the rest of lunch, the rest of school, the walk back home. He didn't dare to speak in fear that he would fall apart much like the rest of his life. He was a ninja in training and ninjas couldn't show their emotions. Mirou was a ninja, but he was also just a kid. A kid who had gone through more in the past two weeks then most people would go through in their entire lifetime.

He allowed himself to let out an exhausted breath as Mirou made it through the doors of his home. He then immediately went back out the doors to the docks, not bothering to tell Sasuke where he was going. He just wanted to be alone right now.

'you're going to be alone for the rest of your life if you keep pushing everyone away'

Mirou ignored the the thought as he reached the edge of the dock, instead focusing on the nearly complete fireball jutsu. He distracted himself with the heat and brightness of the fire, determined to finish the jutsu today. Mirou knew that he was close, the fire ball was close to being as big as Sasuke's, but not quite.

He pushed out his chakra relentlessly, not stopping to take a break once, not even when his throat started to burn from the lack of protection against the flames. Mirou went on like this for hours until his fireball looked to be the same size of his cousin's. Once done, Mirou ran to find Sasuke who was at the Uchiha's private training grounds. Sasuke silently followed Mirou back to the docks with skepticism. Just earlier that day Mirou was to embarrassed from calling him nii-san to look him in the eyes. But now he looked so... hopeless, it was such a drastic change from earlier.

When the duo reached the end of the dock, Sasuke watched with mild shock as Mirou used the jutsu to make a fireball the size of his own. He had expected the boy to take at least a week, however he did stay up those extra two nights so it was understandable. He was admittedly impressed, however he wouldn't show it.

When Mirou finished, he looked back at Sasuke who showed no emotion whatsoever. he started to get nervous as seconds passed and Sasuke still didn't say a word. Finally Sasuke moved closer to Mirou, bringing something out from behind his back. Before he could see what it was however, Sasuke took two fingers and poked him right in the middle of the forehead. Mirou, who was taken back by the sudden action, looked back at his cousin's smirking face in confusion. However before he could question him, Sasuke all but shoved a piece of fabric into his chest.

Mirou took the fabric out of his hands and looked it over. It was a shirt similar to his own, black with a high collar, and long sleeves with a small amount of mesh armor at the bottom. He turned it over and the Uchiha clan symbol was placed proudly on the back. Mirou looked back with wide eyes at his cousin who was still smirking.

"welcome to the family"

This was supposed to be a happy day. Mirou was supposed to smile with thankful tears in his eyes, he was supposed to feel more complete, more whole. but he didn't

Mirou's hands shook as he felt himself overflow with all of his pent up emotions. His face scrunched up as he forced himself to look at Sasuke, who's smirk was slowly leaving his face at his cousin's reaction. Silent tears started to drip out of his eyes as he finally spoke, his voice soar and raw.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," He said, his voice shaking. "I was supposed to be happy again, I was supposed to smile and thank you and be a part of a family again. Everything was supposed to be fine." His legs shook and he griped the shirt close to his chest.

"But I'm not fine. I lost my mom, I lost my home, I keep getting humiliated, and now I've lost by best friend. I just don't know what to do anymore." His legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground. hiccuped sobs came from his mouth as a fountain of tears rolled down his cheeks.

Sasuke, while not knowing much of anything about emotions, knew exactly what to do. He simply did what no one did to him after the death of his clan. He sat down beside the crying boy and brought him into a one armed hug. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but Mirou didnt mind as he clung to his cousin, burring his head into his shoulder as he wept.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours, none of them speaking a word, they didn't need to. Mirou' cries slowly turned to hiccups and whispers as the sun just began to go down. He steadied his breathing and let go of his cousin.

"Sorry," he chuckled dryly, wiping leftover tears from his eyes. "I got your shirt all wet."

Sasuke watched him with careful eyes, as if his usual impassive look would shatter the boy like glass.

"Not a problem," He stated. "I'll just wash it later."

The two sat in silence for a while, not quite knowing what to say. Sasuke mentally cursed his lack of social skills, then he finally spoke.

"Are... you better now?" He asked. It sounded awkward coming from his mouth, but Mirou ether didn't mind or didn't care. He smiled slightly through his exhaustion and looked up towards the sky. The sky was turning orange with the setting sun. If he hadn't just had an emotional breakdown, he would say that it was beautiful.

"Yeah, I... I think I am. Thanks," He said quietly.

When the two went back inside, Mirou excused himself to go to bed, to emotionally exausted to stay up a second longer. Sasuke, while still being worried about the boy, was grateful that he didn't have to deal with anymore emotional stuff.

He knew what it was like, it was how he felt after the massacre. Broken, scared, alone, these were all the things that Mirou was feeling. But Sasuke had a mission, a reason to fight. He was gonna kill that bastard that took everything from him. But Mirou's mother was just, gone. One second she was their, the other she wasn't. There what no significant reason to it, just a freak accident that turned an entire kids life around for the worse.

Sasuke made himself some dinner before going to bed, checking on Mirou on his way to his room before letting himself sleep.

________________

Kiba wouldn't look as him the next day. Or the day after that, or the day after that, or the day after that. He refused to look at Mirou for the rest of the week. Mirou wanted to apologize, he wanted to let Kiba know how much he was hurting an that he was okay to talk about it now. But if Kiba didn't want anything to do with him, he couldn't force it. It was his own fault anyways.

He now ether sat with or around Sasuke, sometimes even around Naruto who he had become friends with over the past few days. He was currently sitting beside the blond, who was barely paying attention. Iruka-Sensei gave them some papers about recent history to work on before leaving the class to talk to another teacher.

Naruto was having trouble with his paper and Mirou was trying to help him, but he wasn't a teacher so he couldn't help as much as he liked. They were working together on the final question, a question that even Mirou was having trouble on, when Anri walked up to their desk with a sneer.

"So you two rejects are friends now?" She asked. "It's poetic really. The demon brat and the bastard child."

"Oi! Just who do you think you're calling a demon!" Naruto yelled while pointing a finger at the girl.

"You. Idiot," she hissed. Naruto looked like he was about to explode on her before Mirou placed a hand on his shoulder. Naruto grumbled but sat back down in his seat. Anri narrowed her eyes at Mirou.

"What. Got gonna say anything?" She asks tauntingly. Mirou glanced around the room, seeing only a few people watching them. He took a small breath before facing Anri.

"You shouldn't call people that," he said in a small voice as to not draw attention to himself. "It's really mean."

Anri snorted, hiding her mocking laughter behind her hand.

"Wow. That's your comeback? You're so lame. I don't even know why I bother talking to you."

And with that, the young girl walked back to her seat, leaving Mirou and Naruto behind. Naruto was still angry from the interaction.

"Man she think's she's so tough, just wait 'till I find out where she lives. I'll paint all her windows black." He mumbled to himself. Mirou heard him and laughed quietly.

"You know I should tell a teacher that you said that," Mirou said with a pause. Naruto looked panicked he started talking again. "But, I think that she's been pretty mean lately. Don't you?"

Naruto looked at him with wide eyes before a large grin broke out on his face. He nodded in agreement and casually placed his hands behind his back.

"You sure know how to have fun, unlike that teme." He said

Mirou laughed before focusing back on his work. The two boys continued to talk and occasionally joke around during the reast of the class, although Naruto was the one doing the joking, Mirou just watched and laughed at his antics. By the time school ended they were still talking about whatever came to mind. And for a moment, it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off of Mirou's shoulders.

'Maby, everything can be okay again' he thought as he exited the class.


	6. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four months pass since the incident and the exams are in two weeks. People notice changes and their are troubles with birthdays

Many months pass after the fight, and life had been good for Mirou. He and Kiba still won't talk, which at first hurt Mirou greatly, but he slowly moved on. Choji and Shikamaru sometimes try to get them to talk it out but it always leaves a thick veil of tension in the air that leaves them too uncomfortable to speak. Instead, Mirou had made good friends with Naruto. They tend to sit together in class, with Mirou trying to help Naruto with the schoolwork, and Naruto being a good and supportive friend.

Many other things have happened in the young boy's life as well. He and Sasuke train together now, which is usually composed of them sparring and Sasuke fixing any mistakes he'd made. Mirou has yet to beat his older cousin in a spar, but he's a quick learner when the work isn't on paper.

Another thing that has happened is that Anri will only ever taunt him when Sasuke can't hear her. Mirou suspects it's because of what happened the first time they sat together but he doesn't know for sure.

The final thing, and arguably the strangest thing that happened was that Emiru was being... nice? It was completely baffling to Mirou. It never happens when Anri's around, but sometimes Emiru would just come up to him and either start up some friendly chatter, or correct a mistake of his work. It was the weirdest thing that had every happened to the boy, but it was still quite nice.

It was currently the end of the day and Mirou was packing up his things to go home. Naruto suddenly popped up from behind him, making him jump slightly.

"You wanna go get some ramen?" He asked with a big smile on his face, "I'm paying."

"Sure, I just gotta go tell Sasuke," Mirou replied. Sasuke was almost out the door when he heard the familiar voice of his cousin say his name. He paused to turn around out of curiosity only to see Mirou stanting right in front of him.

"I'm gonna be late coming home today, I'm getting ramen with Naruto," he explained.

"Hn. Be home before dinner. Your cooking tonight," Sasuke replied.

Mirou nodded gratefully before giving Naruto a thumbs up, making the blond beam. He took the younger Uchiha by the hand and practically dragged him out of the classroom and across the village to Ichiraku ramen. Once there, Mirou insisted on paying for his own bowl much to the others relief.

The two ate ramen and talked for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a couple of minutes. Naruto loved to talk about anything and everything, from his latest pranks, to how he'll become the hokage, to all the different plants he had been growing. Mirou, suprisingly, also liked to talk. He's often quiet around strangers or groups of people, but when he was at home or with close friends, he would ramble about all the little things that happened in his day. Anything from a pretty butterfly, to a high score on a test.

Naruto had just finished gulping down his third bowl of ramen when a familiar face entered the booth.

"Iruka-sensai!" The blond exclaimed with a smile. Mirou also turned to greet his teacher.

"I didn't know you two were friends," Iruka stated as he took a seat. Naruto gave his teacher a toothy grin and patted his friends back.

"Yeah! Mirou it waaay more fun then the stupid teme! And Mirou helps me with my work! She's awesome!" He yelled.

The two laughed, but then stopped.

"Wait, Naruto did you say she?" His teacher asked.

"Uh yeah? Why?"

Both Iruka and Teuchi started to chuckle while Morou started sputtering, his face turning bright pink. Naruto just looked confused.

"Why are you laughing? what's going on?" He asked. Mirou finally found his voice and was quick to react.

"Naruto I'm not a girl, I'm a boy!" He exclaimed, his voice a higher pitch from embarrassment. Naruto blinked once, then twice, then-"

"WHAT!? You were a boy this whole time! I thought you were just some cute girl!" He yelled. Mirou grew more and more red at each word before covering his head with his hands.

"We've been friends for months! How didn't you know this!"

"I don't know! You have long hair and look very girly!"

The other two adults were now laughing both Naruto's bewilderment and Mirou's embarrassment. Iruka was quite happy to see both his students so carefree and making good friends. Naruto was in the middle of trying to explain himself when a new thought came to mind.

"Oh! Iruka-sensei, why're you here?" He asked, interrupting his own rant. Iruke looked at his students with a small sigh.

"The final exam is in two weeks," He answered. "I just wanted to make sure that you were prepared."

Mirou glanced between his teacher and his friend. He was fully aware that Naruto had failed the last three exams, and if he failed again then this was probably going to be his last year with the blond. Naruto on the other hand, gave his teacher yet another toothy grin.

"Don't you worry Sensei! I'll pass this time for sure, believe it!"

Iruka's anxieties were eased slightly by the boy's boisterous claim, but worry still ate away at his insides. He'd watched Naruto grow over the years and wanted him to one day achieve his dream.

"Of course you will," He says with a smile.

The three sat there for a while, talking absently. Well, Naruto did most of the talking, Mirou was much more quiet now that his teacher was with them. They stayed their for an hour before Mirou checked the time. It was 4:00 PM and he had to be home by 5:30 in order to make dinner, so he still had an hour and a half to kill.

"Maby I should go home now, then I could spar with Sasuke for a while before dinner," He spoke absently to himself.

Naruto however, didn't like the idea of having his new friend going back to a house with Sasuke in it.

"Let's go back to my place! We can watch cartoons and stuff!" He loudly suggested.

Mirou was startled, but delited at the invitation. He barely had enough time to place his money on the counter before being dragged away by the energetic blond. Iruka watched them as they faded into the distance before he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around only for Teuchi to shove a bill for 5 ramen bowls in his face. 1 of them was his, but the other four were Naruto's. He was annoyed that the bill had one again fallen into his hands to pay, but bewildered that Naruto had somehow ordered another bowl without him knowing. Iruka grumbled while paying the bill and then started his walk back to the academy to mark some paperwork.

Mirou and Naruto were close to Naruto's apartment when Mirou started to hear the whispers. He was used to hearing the whispers of the people, as they typically were strangers expressing pity towards either himself or Sasuke. But these whispers were more violent and hateful, and towards Naruto of all people.

"It's that damn brat again"

"I don't know what those elders are thinking just letting him wander around the place like thay"

"Hey isn't that kid that Uchiha that everyone's talking about?"

"Poor kid, that demon probably tricked him to go with it"

"What if he's teaming up with that fox just like-"

"Shhh! We don't talk about that!"

Mirou could feel the stairs of the villagers burning holes into the back of his head, and decided to move closer to Naruto in a feeble attempt to hide away from them. Mirou was aware of the villages dislike towards the energetic blond, however he never realized how much they actually despised him.

They finally got back to Naruto's place, and Mirou couldn't be happier. The place was small, only two rooms smaller than his old apartment, and smelled like instant ramen and dirty laundry. It wasn't a pleasant smell, but still much better then alchohol and must. The one thing that caught his attention were the two small potted plants on his windowsill. One was a Hens and chicks succulent, and the other was a carrot top fern, much like the one he had at home

"I didn't know that you could garden," Said Mirou as he walked towards the plants. Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, Jiji got them for me on my birthday last year," he explained.

"That's nice of him, I have a fern like that to."

"Really?!"

"Yeah. I want to also get a cactus one day but I don't have enough money right now."

"No way! Me to!"

Naruto was ecstatic to have someone share his interest in plants, and Mirou was glad to finally have someone to talk about plants with.

"So when's your birthday?" Mirou asked, his attention shifting away from the plants and back to his friend.

"October 10th, what about you?" Naruto replied.

"March 1st."

Naruto's eyes went wide.

"What! But that was months ago! Why didn't you tell me!" He whined. Now it was Mirou's turn to look sheepish.

"Well, only Kiba knows my birthday, and I don't really celebrate it either, so I guess I just kinda forgot to tell you," He said, laughing awkwardly at the end.

"Well next time I'm gonna come over and make you celebrate of I have to!" Naruto declared, sticking up his thumb. Mirou gave him a grateful smile.

"I don't think Sasuke would like that very much..."

"I don't care what Sasuke thinks! I'll kick his ass if I have to!"

Mirou laughed causing Naruto to pout. The two boys settled down on Naruto's bed and started watching whatever was on television. Mirou felt nice and for a moment everything felt normal, like he was just a normal kid sitting with his normal friend in his normal apartment doing normal kid things. No deaths, no clan secrets or confusing family trees. Everything felt right again. However that feeling would end about an hour later when Mirou realized that he had to go home.

The young Uchiha said goodbye to his friend and started his walk home. Their was barely anyone out at this time, leaving the streets barren. A warm breeze brushed through his long hair as he thought of what to make for dinner. Mirou was in a good mood today and decided to make his cousin's favorite meal, omisubi with okaka and tomatoes, even if he wasn't fond of the dish himself. As he entered the house he noticed that Sasuke was sitting in the livingroom to do his work rather than in his room. Said Uchiha turned his head slightly when heard the door open.

"You're later then I thought you'd be." He stated flatly. Mirou took off his shoes and immediately went into the kitchen.

"Sorry. Naruto Invited me over to his place and I couldn't just say no," He explained, bringing out all of the stuff he needed to make dinner. Sasuke rolled his eyes, knowing quite well that his cousin was to nice for his own good.

"You shouldn't hang around him to much. You'll catch his stupid." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"I hang around you all the time and I'm not a grump," Mirou jabbed causing Sasuke to glare at him.

Sasuke only then took notice of the incident he had gathered for dinner. He immediately recognized them as the ingredient for omisubi with okaka and tomatoes, his favorite meal. He glanced back to the other, a single eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Did something happen?" Be asked, knowing full well that Mirou only made this meal when he was in a really good mood. Mirou didn't even look back at Sasuke but a smile still broke out on his face.

"Nothing much. Naruto might try to break in on my birthday though." He answered. Sasuke had a look of amusement on his face.

"As if I wouldn't kick his ass first. But why would he do that?"

Mirou was almost finished dinner by now and was setting the table for the both of them.

"Well I told him that I don't really celebrate my birthday anymore and he said that he was going to make me celebrate it, and I quote "I don't care what Sasuke thinks, I'll kick his ass if I have to"."

Sasuke scoffed in amusement and got up from his seat to sit at the table.

"And when exactly is he going to "kick my ass"?" He asked sarcastically. Mirou set a plate of food down in front of him before taking a seat himself.

"March 1st, so you don't have to worry for another nine months," He answered before taking a pite of his food.

Sasuke paused. May 1st was four months ago, just after he had completed the fireball jutsu.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked. Mirou took to a sheepish expression once again.

"I never really celebrate my birthday anymore, I even forgot it was my birthday until days later." He explained, trying to brush it off as no big deal.

"Hn. Next time we'll celebrate it." Sasuke declared flatly. Mirou was momentarily taken back. Celebrating things was very un-Sasuke like, but he has grateful none the less.

"Fine, but only if you tell me your birthday to.

"July 3rd." Sasuke replied.

"What! That's only on a couple of weeks!" Mirou uncharacteristically exclaimed. "I need to get you a present!"

"You don't need to-"

"If you want to celebrate my birthday, then I get to celebrate yours." Mirou said in a rarely heard firm voice. Sasuke let out a sigh and reluctantly agreed, knowing that he wasn't going to stop even if he said so.

"Whatever," He grumbles, putting his dishes in the sink to wash them later. Mirou gave him something akin to a smirk, but with his soft feathers and naturally kind personality it came off as more of a wobbly smile.

The next day of school was a free study day since the exam was only in two weeks. Mirou sat beside Sasuke today as Naruto and choji had desided to skip class. The young boy knew that he would be able to pass the physical parts of the exam, he was in the top quarter of the class in that attribute, but he was greatly worried about the written exam. His history was choppy at best, and don't even get him started on mathematics. Mirou glared daggers at his paper, as of the threat of his stare would make the pencil move out of fear. He glanced over at Sasuke's paper only to see it completely done. He was in no way surprised by this, Sasule was number one in every subject, but it still left him in awe every time. He looked down at his own paper before looking back at his cousin's. Ignoring the butterflies that had started to form in his stomach, he mustered up the courage to ask Sasuke a question.

"Hey... uh... Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Do you think you could... uh... help me? With the paper I mean? I don't think I'm getting it quite yet," Mirou asked tentatively.

Sasuke paused before giving a slight nod and shifting slightly so the younger could get a better view.

"What part?" He asked, picking up his pencil.

"Oh uh, this part here," Mirou answered while pointing at the specific part of an equation.

The other kids in the class were listening in in the conversation between the two with varying degrees of interest. Some were listening in because they were also having trouble with the math. Sasuke's fangirls listened to anything and everything he had to say, regardless of the context. However most listened in because it was still baffling that Sasuke of all people was talking to someone with words, and in a way that wasn't insulting. 

Two people in specific decided to watch the interaction, but for very different reasons. One of these people was Shikamaru, who only watched because his head just so happened to be laying on that side of the desk. The other person was Kiba, who was watching Mirou in specific since the beginning of class. In fact, he typically stole glances at his former friend whenever he could. Both Kiba and Shikamaru had noticed the slight change in both Mirou and Sasuke's attitude over the last few month, however it was hard for anyone not to notice them.

Verbally speaking, Sasuke had definatly changed the most. When he talked to Mirou he didn't look down on him or make any jabs at his skills, but talked in a strangely polite way, or at least what was polite by Sasuke's standards. Mirou on the other hand, was asking for help more often and making small jokes and teasing the other, something that he had practically never done before.

Physicality speaking, it was Mirou who changed the most, as he now held himself in a more confident manner, and used his arms and hands to Express himself more. Sasuke, while he had changed, only changed with Mirou. Even as they were talking now, Mirou was looking over Sasuke's shoulder and their arms were practically touching, and yet Sasuke didn't seem to mind at all. However if anyone else tried to do that they would get a murderous glare and the promise of a quick death.

While Shikamaru looked away when he lost interest, Kiba was all but fuming in his seat. It had taken him years to get Mirou to open up as far as he did and yet Sasuke was able to completely surpass him in a matter of months? He wouldn't have believed it if he wasn't seeing it with his own two eyes. Kiba would never admit in a million years that he was jealous, jealousy was an ugly emotion that he didn't feel. But he could admit this this was all partially his fault. He was the one who pushed Mirou away when he needed him most after all. Kiba turned away with a huff, deciding to mutter profanities at his paper instead of feeding the emotion of not-jealousy forming in his chest.

School went by rather quickly after that. At the end of the day, the two uchiha packed up their things and started their long walk back home. The two were at the half way mark when a familiar voice caused them to stop.

"Oi! Wait up!"

It was Naruto. When he caught up to them he looked completely out of breath, hands on he knees as he wheezed. Sasuke scoffed in irritation.

"What do you want dobe?" He glared. Naruto regained his composure and glared back.

"I wasn't looking for you teme," He spat. "I was looking for Mirou."

Said Uchiha was confused as to why Naruto would chase him down the street. Mirou was about to ask when an envelope was shoved in his face. It felt slightly heavy as he took it from the other's hand, clearly having something more then paper inside. He turned it over to reveal the words "Happy Birthday!" As well as a crude drawing of himself written on the back. Mirou looked from the paper back to Naruto who had a proud grin on his face.

"I wasn't sure what to get ya, but I know that I- OOF"

Naruto was cut off as Mirou tacked him into a tight hug, almost causing them both to fall over.

"Thank you so much! It means the world to me!" Mirou all but yelled, backing away from the hug. Naruto's chest puffed up in pride from the compliment.

"Well you know me, I'm awesome!" He boasted. 

They said their goodbyes and separated soon after. Mirou couldn't wait to get home so that he could open his gift, it was rare for him to get gifts from friends after all. Sasuke on the other hand, still didn't like the idea of his cousin hanging around Naruro so much. He was loud, stupid, and annoying and didn't want any of that to rub off on Mirou. He was perfectly aware that he was acting like a protective older brother, but That's just what happens when your the oldest in the house and your younger cousin is overly friendly and naive.

When they finally stepped inside the household, Mirou Zoomed passed Sasuke to take a sit on the couch to open his envelope. The first thing he took out was a hand drawn card with a picture of himself and Naruto with an orange birthday cake. In the inside it said:

"Happy (late) Birthday to my besist friend! You're almost as great as ramen!  
(P.S. sorry I thought you were a girl)  
\- Future Hokage Naruto Uzumaki"

Taped to the other side of the card were two Ichiraku Ramen coupons for half of our next meal. Mirou placed the card on the table and opened the envelope wider, revealing one last gift. It was a shiny gold coloured hair elastic taped to another leice of paper. This one read;

"You broke your old one so I got you this cool new shiny one!"  
(P.S. it's not real gold, I checked)

Mirou chucked at the thought of Naruto thinking that it was in fact real gold. He took the elastic off the paper to inspect it further. It definitely looked like real gold, and was very shiny. While Naruto probably didn't know, gold was actually his favorite colour. He undid the thick string that was keeping his hair up and placed it on the table, letting his hair fall freely. He then took the elastic and used to tie up his hair back into a low ponytail.

While Mirou was busy with his hair, Sasuke wandered over and glanced at the card that he was given.

"Sorry I thought you were a girl? Did Naruto actually think you were a girl for five months?" He asked amused. Mirou groaned and let his shoulders slump.

"I didn't even know that he thought this! He thought that I was 'a cute girl.'!" He wined, Sasuke let out a short snicker at the thought.

"Well you are very fairy-like," he teased. Mirou sat up in his seat, now looking directly at his cousin.

"Not you to!" He yelled.

"All you need is a skirt and no one would know," Sasike continued. Mirou then glared and got up from his seat to go to his room.

"You say it again and I'm going to call you nii-san in public!" Mirou yelled from the stairs. Sasuke only smirked, knowing that he would never actually try to embarrass him in public.

Mirou swung open the door to his room with a huff, his cousin's words still replaying in his head. He went to place his card down in his desk when something green caught his eye. On his desk was a cacti, or more spesoficly a rebutia cacti with a few orange/pink flowes. Beside it was a small card with the Uchiha Crest on the front and the letter S written on the inside. Mirou's heart filled with gratitude as he placed the small cacti on the windowsill. Maby he would make omisubi with okaka and tomatoes for the next few nights, even if he didn't like it.


	7. The time to be a ninja

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exam time is here, Mirou is afraid of spiders, and the two Uchiha learn a bit more about Mirou's parents.

A harsh buzz cut through the silent room, waking Mirou from his slumber. The sudden noise made him sit up in bed with a jolt, and quickly search for the clock in a sleep driven daze. He shut off the dreaded machine before trying to rub the sleep from his eyes and swinging his feet over the side of the bed. He got dressed and made his way downstairs where he groggily started to make breakfast. Nearly two weeks had passed and it was the day before their final exams, and Mirou thought that it would be a good idea to wake up early. However as he sat down at the breakfast table at 6:22 in the morning, Mirou started to regret his earlier actions.

It was a good ten minutes before Sasuke made his way downstairs. He, much like Mirou, also had the idea to wake up early today, however clearly at a much more reasonable time. A look of amusement flashed across Sasuke's face as he walked over to the table where his cousin was slowly dozing off. He quietly entered the kitchen and took two small cooking pans before tiptoeing behind Mirou. He slowly raised the pains over his head, smirking in anticipation.

"Rise and shine!"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Mirou yelped and fell out of his chair, completely caught off guard by the loud noises. Sasuke snorted while trying to hold in his laughter at the sorry state of his cousin. Once Mirou got over his shock, he glared daggers at Sasuke before getting up, fixing his chair, and sitting back down in a huff. Sasuke was still trying not to laugh when he also sat down.

"Aren't you mad?" He asked smugly. Mirou glared at him briefly before turning his head to the side in annoyance.

"Oh I'm mad, but I'm too tired to yell at you right now. I'll do something about it later," He answered with a snap.

Mirou finished his breakfast and went to go get ready for school.

"And I'm making nattō for dinner," He called out from the front door.

Sasuke rolled his eyes before following in his cousin's footsteps. If one night of having nattō was the only punishment he got for something so hilarious, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

The rest of the day had Mirou bouncing his leg with anxiety. His head was all muttled with the leftovers of sleep in the morning, so it didn't hit him until now that the exams were tomorrow. He knew that with Sasuke helping him over the past few weeks he would be able to pass, but there were too many 'what if's' going through his head. Trying to shake off his anxieties, Mirou decided to focus on his review rather than his troublesome thoughts. A short time passed before a ninja entered the classroom and whispered something into Iruka's ear. Iruka sighed before turning to face the class.

"I have some urgent matters to attend to right now, but I will be back shortly so please try to focus on your work," He said and then exited the classroom.

The second that the doors shut, the class erupted into whispers and chatter. Mirou looked to Sasuke who shrugged, clearly having no idea what their teacher was talking about either.

"Probably Naruto," Sasuke answered. Mirou nodded and looked ahead of him to the single empty seat in the entire class.

"Yeah, I think I heard something about paint and some big prank," Mirou mused. As if on cue, Iruka came back into the classroom holding a tied up Naruto. He placed the blond on the floor before giving him a stern look.

"Now listen Naruto, you failed the last graduation test, and the one before that. This is no time to be goofing off you fool!"

Naruto simply turns his head in defiance, causing Iruka to become more irritated. He turned his attention away from Naruto and instead started pointing at the rest of the class.

"We will have a re-test on the transformation jutsu! Even those who already passed will take it!" He yelled.

The class collectively groaned as they started to line up at the front of the class. The first person to go up was a pink haired girl - Sakura as Mirou remembered.

"Sakura Haruno. Here I go," she paused to make the hand sign. "Transform!"

In a poof of white smoke the pink haired girl turned into a near perfect copy of her teacher.

"Okay," said Iruka as he wrote down her score on his clipboard. Sakura de-transforms and immediately turned to Sasuke who was standing behind her.

"I did it! Did you see that Sasuke-kun?" She asked in a sing-song voice. Sasuke ignored her as usual.

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha."

"Yeah."

Before Iruka was done writing, Sasuke already transformed into a perfect copy of his teacher without using any words. Mirou resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his cousin for showing off.

"O-okay," Iruka mumbled as he looked back down at his clipboard. Sasuke transformed back with a smirk and walked off to the other side of the class.

"Next, Mirou Uchiha,"

"Yes sir!"

Mirou walked up to his teacher with a twinge of confidence in his step. His jutsu may not be as perfect as Sasuke's, but he was still much better at this than any paperwork. Mirou took a deep breath and performed the hand sign.

"Transform."

He turned into an identical copy of his teacher. Iruka looked at him and then back down at his clipboard.

"Okay."

Mirou de-transformed with a sigh of relief before quickly joining his cousin at the other side of the room.

"Next, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto was slouching with his hands on his hips, obviously annoyed, while both Ino and Shikamaru stood behind him with a scowl.

"This is a real pain," Shikamaru complained.

"And it's all your fault." Ino added with a sneer.

"Like I care!" Naruto exclaimed while waving his hand in dismissal.

He, like the rest of the class, walked up to his teacher and did the hand signs for the transformation jutsu. However when he transformed, he didn't turn into his teacher, and instead turned into a naked lady. The class blushed and Sasuke covered the eyes of a very confused Mirou, who couldn't see what was going on. Iruka started bleeding from his nose and fell backwards in shock while Naruto de-transformed and started laughing at his teacher.

"How was that? I call it the Sexy Jutsu!"

Iruka got back up with cloth in his nose to stop the bleeding, somehow looking even more annoyed than before.

"You fool! Stop making idiotic spells!" He yelled. Naruto grumbled and walked over beside Mirou who gave him a sympathetic smile. Sasuke mumbled "loser" just low enough for Mirou to hear which earned him a light elbow to his side.

School was let out early because of the exams being tomorrow. Mirou was packing away his things to go home when a small slip of paper slipped out of his pocket. He paused to look at the paper before his eyes widened. It was a reminder to himself to pick up his mother's things from his old neighbor Ezume, and he has completely forgotten. He frantically shoved the paper back in his pocket before rushing out the classroom doors to find Sasuke. When he caught up to him Mirou placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"I really need a big favor from you," Mirou said vaguely. Sasuke raised his brow in suspicion.

"Its nothing bad, I just need some help getting some boxes from my old neighbor," Mirou explained. Sasuke's expression didn't waver.

"If you help me I won't make nattō for dinner."

"Fine," Sasuke begrudgingly answered.

The two then made their way down the familiar road towards the old apartment. As they made their way up the stairs to get to the third floor, Mirou's heart started to beat heavily in his chest. The... Incident was nearly half a year ago, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of wrongness as he passed by the familiar door. He could almost still smell the near suffocating stench of alcohol seeping from the walls. Without looking at his old apartment, he knocked on his neighbor's door. After a few seconds, the familiar elderly women opened the door and immediately smothered Mirou in a hug.

"Mirou my boy! Oh, it's so nice to see you again!" She exclaimed.

"Iss nihe oo see yu oo," Mirou said, his voice muffled from the hug. Ezume let the boy go and placed her hands on his shoulders.

"You've grown so big!" She exclaimed before pinching his cheeks. "Has it really been five months? How have you been, love?"

"Ife been googh," He said with his cheek still being pinched. It was then that Ezume noticed Sasuke standing awkwardly behind Mirou, simply watching the bizarre scene unfold.

"Oh and who might you be?" She asked. Mirou was quick to answer.

"This is Sasuke, he's my cousin."

"Second cousin," Sasuke corrected.

"Oh Sasuke, of course! I suppose that this means that you know about your father," Ezume said.

Both Mirou and Sasuke looked at the older woman in shock, not knowing as to how she could possibly know about Mirou's father. Ezume sighed and stepped to the side of her doorway.

"I suppose I have some explaining to do. Please, come in."

The two entered the houses and took a seat on the couch. Ezume sat in a chair across from them.

"You're probably wondering how I knew your father," She stated, and Mirou nodded eagerly.

"Well, I knew your mother for a very long time you see, as I was good friends with her mother, your grandmother. Aimi met your father, Kenzou, when they were children and immediately became the best of friends," She paused to take a sip of her tea that was sitting on the table, a nostalgic look flashing in her eyes. "When Aimi became pregnant, she refused to tell anyone who the father was, and then I never saw her with Kenzou again, so I just put the pieces together."

Mirou was silent, contemplating what he was just told. Hearing about his mother no longer made him feel sad like he had expected. In its place was a strange feeling of contempt detachment that was hard to explain, as if he was hearing about her through the eyes of a stranger. Hearing about his father however didn't feel any different then how it would feel when his mother told Mirou stories about him

Ezume then started rustling her hand in a box beside her chair before taking out a picture frame. He handed it to Mirou who took it carefully. In it was a picture of two people. One was his mother. She was smiling, her long silver hair was swaying in the wind and her light blue, almost white eyes were shining with life. She was wearing a jonnin vest and putting her arm around a man he had never seen before. He had short spiky black hair that leaned to the right side of his head. His eyes were narrow and black, but friendly and inviting. He seemed to be smiling bashfully, and wearing what Mirou recognizes as the Konoha Military Police Force uniform. He had never seen the man, but something in his gut told him that knew who he was.

"Is... this my dad?" He asked quietly.

"You remind me of him you know, you act just like him" Ezume answered

Mirou paused for a good minute, staring at the photograph before trying to hand it back to Ezume. The elderly woman held up her hand in protest.

"Keep it. I've got lots of memories and that's all I need," She said while tapping her head.

Mirou thanked her graciously and went with Sasuke to pick up his mother's belongings. The walk back to the compound was blanketed in a comfortable silence that neither of the two boys wanted to break. Sasuke helped Mirou put the boxes in his room before leaving him alone to unpack.

Inside the first box was mostly clothes and personal belongings, although there was one old black Uchiha clan tank top that probably belonged to his father. He placed the shirt on his bed before putting the rest of the stuff away. The second box was filled with his mother's old ninja stuff, the most notable being the jonnin vest from the picture and a black Hitai-ate with a few scratches in it.

Another thing that caught his eye was what looked to be a small scroll. Curiosity for the better of him so Mirou decided to open it. On the inside was what looked to be a simple storage seal. At first Mirou was going to put it back and see what was inside later, but it almost felt like whatever was inside was calling to him. He cautiously pushed some chakra into the scroll causing a large cloud of white smoke to appear. When the smoke vanished, Mirou was surprised to see a large sword. It was about three feet long and had a black handle with small golden sun-like designs.

Mirou stood in awe at the large sword and reached out to see the blade. However when he drew the blade he was surprised to see that it was only half as long as the sheath. Then he saw a strange groove at the end of the sheath and had an idea as to why it was their. Just as he thought, when he tugged at the end of the sheath it revealed a second hidden blade. Mirou, being not even twelve, thought that this was possibly the coolest thing that you could find in a mysterious scroll.

He put the sword back in the scroll soon after and went downstairs to make dinner, something he found that he was doing often. Perhaps he would sleep in a couple extra minutes tomorrow so Sasuke would do it instead.

"We are about to begin the graduation test. When your name is called, proceed to the next classroom. The test is on the clone Jutsu."

Mirou let out an audible sigh of relief after hearing his teachers words, thankful that it wasn't something like math or history. He waited patiently at his seat and watched as the kids from his class slowly started decreasing in numbers. As it was going by alphabetical order, first was Shino, then Choji, then Sakura, then a girl belonging to the hyuuga clan whose name he didn't know, then Shikamaru, then Anri, then Emiru.

"Mirou Uchiha!" Iruka called out.

Mirou quickly stood up from his seat and walked towards the next class. When he opened the door he saw that inside the classroom Iruka was already there, as well as Mizuki. Mirou walked to the middle of the room and waited for instructions.

"Make as many stable clones as you can." Iruka instructed.

Mirou nodded and got his hands into position. He gathered his chakra and four clones proofed into existence. Normally he would only be able to do three, but with Sasuke's help over the past few months he was able to just raise his chakra levels enough for a fourth clone. Iruka wrote something down on his clipboard before turning back to Mirou with a smile.

"You pass."

Mirou released the jutsu and gave his teacher the brightest grin he'd ever given. He practically ran up to his teacher who handed him his very own Hitai-ate. Mirou all but skipped out the doors as he found all the other kids from his class being congratulated by their parents. He felt a small twinge of jealousy chern in his gut as he looked down at the shiny metal object, knowing that neither his father nor his mother would be able to congratulate him on finally achieving the first big step to accomplishing his dream. A hand on his shoulder suddenly jolted him from his thoughts as he turned around to see Sasuke.

"Congratulations," he said with a smirk. Mirou's chest swelled with joy as another smile broke out on his face.

"Thanks! You too!" He chirped back. "How many clones did you make?" Mirou asked. Sasuke gave a different smirk before answering.

"Six."

Mirou gawked at his older cousin.

"S-six! I only managed to make four! Geez, your skills never cease to amaze me Sasuke," He sighed, but also unknowingly inflated Sasuke's ego.

The two were about to walk home together when something yellow caught Mirou's eye. He paused and turned to see Naruto somberly sitting on a swing away from all the other people. He knew from just a look that Naruto was unable to pass.

"You go on ahead Sasuke, I'll catch up to you later." Mirou said as he walked away, not giving Sasuke any time to respond.

The young boy weaved his way through the crowd of people who he heard whispering venomous things towards the blonde. He ignored them as always and went to stand beside Naruto who barely acknowledged him. They stayed silent for a while before Mirou decided to be the first one to speak.

"I'm really sorry, Naruto." He said earnestly. "I think that if anyone here deserves to be a ninja, it's you."

Naruto finally decided to look up at Mirou.

"Really?" He asked.

"Of course! You might goof off sometimes, but you still work harder than anyone here," Mirou spoke ardently. Some of the light made its way back to Naruto's eyes as he looked up at his friend with newfound respect.

"Yeah! Who cares about one stupid clone anyways!" He exclaimed.

Mirou was about to talk with him further when Mizuki suddenly appeared beside them.

"Good afternoon Mirou, do you mind if I steal naruto for a chat?" He asked. Mirou shook his head and the two vanished quicker than the eye could see. Mirou blinked twice before sighing and making his way back home. The next day was the orientation and he needed to make a good first impression.

When the next day came, Mirou once again got up early, however this time he stayed in bed until he heard Sasuke's footsteps walk past his door. He then got out of bed and went to his dresser to look for something to wear. He got out his white shorts, a mesh tank top, and his newly bought black ninja sandals. He contemplated wearing the same shirt that Sasuke had given him after completing the fireball jutsu, however he simply found the high collar too distracting.

Mirou's eyes then trailed off towards the black tank top that he had pulled from his mother's belongings the day before. It, unlike most Uchiha clan shirts, had a rather wide collar. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, he tried on the old shirt. It was a bit big, and found that the collar was close to hanging off his left shoulder, but it was comfortable and much less distracting than the other Uchiha clan shirts.

Content with the look of the shirt, Mirou began to wonder if there was anything else of his mother's that he could re-use. He quickly started digging through the box until he found a ninja pouch, a long teal-blue short sleeved coat that went slightly past his shorts, and a pair of long black gloves with the pinky and ring finger cut out. Feeling good about his findings, Mirou quickly put them on before making his way downstairs for breakfast.

"Took you long enough," Said Sasuke as Mirou sat down at the table. Mirou gave him a sheepish apology and started to eat his food, being glad that he wasn't the one who made it for once. Once the two were done, Mirou put away the dishes, allowing Sasuke to realise that his cousin's shirt had the Uchiha clan Crest, however he had never seen that specific shirt before.

"Who's shirt is that?" He asked in a monotone voice. Mirou turned back to him with a twinkle in his eyes, and a grin on his face.

"It's my dad's. I found it in one of okāsan's old boxes," Mirou explains. "And I found these gloves, the coat, this ninja pouch, oh! And a huge sword!" He exclaimed while moving towards the front door.

"A sword?" Sasuke inquires, already waiting on the front steps.

"Yeah, it's about three feet long" Mirou explains while holding his arms out wide. The two started walking towards the academy for their official pictures to be taken.

"Sounds like a nodachi," Sasuke answered, but Mirou just shook his head.

"No it only looks like a nodachi, but it's actually two swords. One at the top and one at the bottom." He clarified. Sasuke hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't add anything else to the conversation.

The two Uchiha continued the rest of the walk to the academy in a comfortable silence. When they reached their destination, the boys went up the stairs of the attached Hokage tower and then waited in line for their picture to be taken. Once that was done, Mirou glanced at a clock and noticed that it was only eight in the morning.

"We've got some time to kill until noon, you wanna do something?" He asked, turning to Sasuke.

"Not really, let's just go back." Said Sasuke.

When the boys got back home, Sasuke went to the fridge and took out two onigiri, passing one to mirou as he made his way upstairs. Mirou thanked him before sitting down in the living room, taking a book about weapons off the shelves in the process. About an hour went by without any luck when Mirou suddenly heard a loud crash coming from upstairs. Curious, Mirou put down his book and carefully walked up stairs.

Sasuke came out of his room and looked at Mirou with an eyebrow raised. They both looked to Mirou's bedroom door with caution, knowing that that's where the noise came from. The younger of the two gulped nervously as his hand grasped the door knob. Peering inside the room, it seemed that nothing was out of place. However upon further investigation Mirou could see that his mother's ninja belongings were scattered across the floor and the box was completely knocked over. He sighed and turned towards the door.

"False alarm, some stuff just got knocked over that's all!" He called out to his cousin.

Sasuke "Hn'd" and went back to his room while Mirou went to pick up his toppled over belongings. As his hand reached for the box he froze, every hair on his body stood on end. Crawling over the box was the body of an absolutely massive black spider, a spider big enough to possibly knock over the box. Mirou screamed in horror and jumped away to the far side of the room in an instant.

"A spider!" He thought. "Why did it have to be a spider!" 

Sasuke burst through the room after hearing the scream and looked around, his eyes scanning for any sort of threat. His eyes immediately went to Mirou who was still frozen to the wall in panic. He then followed his cousin's eyes to the incredibly large spider still sitting on the box. One would think it was mocking the young Uchiha if it wasn't for the fact that it was a spider. Sasuke looked back to his cousin with a dead panned look on his face and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I thought you were being attacked or something, but all that over a damn spider?" He griped, calmly walking towards the spider while Mirou continued to cower. The younger boy tensed as he watched Sasuke pick up the spider with a piece of paper and dropped out the window.

"See? It's harmle-" Sasuke stopped when he saw that Mirou was no longer in the room with him, but instead heard footsteps frantically run down the stairs and into the living room.

Perplexed by his cousin's unusual behavior, Sasuke followed him into the living room where he found him curled up in a ball on the couch. Sasuke sat down with him, noticing that Mirou didn't move or acknowledge him as he did so.

"You know that it can't actually hurt you right?" Sasuke said flatly. "It's big, but not as big as us."

"I-I know, but... argh, it's stupid," Mirou mumbled. Sasuke didn't speak and waited for an explanation.

"I don't really like to talk about it... but-" He paused to take a quick breath. "When I was like, five or six, I found a stray cat on my way back from school. I named her Nemu and played with her until Okāsan had to come find me. I asked Okāsan if we could keep her, but we didn't have enough money to be looking after an animal. Then a couple of days after, I saw Nemu again sleeping in an alleyway. I got so excited and was going to go pet her but-" Mirou paused as his face contorted with the pain of the memory. "She was dead. I wanted to bury her properly but as I reached out to touch her, I realized that she was just covered in little spiders. It traumatized me and I still can't even hear the word spider without that memory flashing into my head."

There was silence. Sasuke didn't know what to say, he was expecting him to say that they were just creepy or something, not childhood trauma. In fact, now that he thought about it, everytime Sasuke thought that he had figured Mirou out, there's always another layer to peel back.

The young Uchiha suddenly stood up and stretched, a nervous smile planted on his face.

"Wow my muscles are so stiff, maybe I should go for a walk or something," Mirou announced. He was obviously just trying to distract himself, but Sasuke didn't comment on it.

Mirou walked over to the front door and put on his shoes before turning to face his cousin.

"I'll probably be gone for a couple of hours so just go to the orientation without me," he called out.

"Hn"

Sasuke heard the front door shut and sighed, wondering how someone related to him could be so strange.

Mirou counted his breathing as he walked down the quiet street. In - two, three, four, hold - five, six, seven, and out - six, seven, eight. As he counted he could feel his heart slowly returning to normal, however his hands still shook with leftover agitation. He knew that reacting in such a way over a simple spider was a pathetic overreaction, but whenever he caught sight of those eight legged fiends his brain shuts down any ounce of rational thought.

The young boy walked aimlessly for a while before coming across a familiar park with a familiar tree. Hoping to also see a familiar face, Mirou started to jog in the tree's direction. Once closer to his destination, the young Uchiha was delighted to see his friends Choji and Shikamaru.

Choji was the first one to see him and gave him a wave while eating his favorite flavor of chips. Mirou, in turn, quickened his pace and waved back to his friend.

"Hey Choji, Shikamaru. I'm really glad that I ran into you guys," He chirped happily while stopping in front of his friends.

"Home troubles?" Choji asked while shoveling another handful of chips into his mouth. Mirou let out a short huff of air through his nose before plopping down against the tree.

"Not really, I just needed to get out of the house," He answered glumly.

"You get in a fight with Sasuke or something?" Shikamaru added, looking at Mirou with a single eye open.

"No it's just... there was a spider, and then Sasuke found out how scared of them I am, and it just made everything all awkward and stuff." He explained while sounding quite jaded, sinking down into a laying down position.

The other two just nodded, already knowing the upsetting story of Nemu. The three friends sat in silence for a while, just watching the clouds go by as time slowly ticked away.

"So... how's Kiba been" Mirou asked Hesitantly.

While he knew that he and Kiba were not on the best of terms, Mirou was constantly worried about his old friend. It hurt him dearly everytime he caught a glance of him out of the corner of his eye, but he never managed to gather up enough courage to actually talk to him.

"He's been too troublesome to deal with," Shikamaru griped. "Always complaining, or arguing, or fighting, or just being a complete pain."

"He was way easier to deal with when you were around because he always listened to you," Choji added. Mirou moven to prop himself on his elbows before looking at his friends with a slightly confused face.

"I mean, he's not that bad," Mirou tried to counter.

"You only think that because you've never been around to see the 'Mirou-less' Kiba," Shikamaru argued. Mirou laid back down and cast his gaze towards the sky once again, being unable to come up with a counter argument.

"Hn, I guess so," he muttered.

A few hours when by before the trio realized that they needed to start heading towards the academy for the orientation. Mirou stretched his stiff limbs as he got up, having not moved for hours. He started walking with his two friends when he paused to take his Hitai-ate out of his pocket and tie it to his right wrist. He stared at the leaf village symbol engraved into the metal as a wave of determination washed over his body.

"What are you waiting for, are you coming or not?" Shikamaru yelled from far ahead.

Mirou was snapped out of his thoughts by his friend's voice and ran to catch up to them, however it felt as if something within him had changed. Mirou didn't want to be the meek and bashful kid that he had been his whole life. He was a ninja now, and he needed to believe in himself like a ninja would.


	8. Chapter 8. Introducing team six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mirou if finally sorted into his team and meets his sensei, but what could Anri be plotting?

Mirou entered the familiar classroom with a gleeful smile on his face, his friend Shikamaru and Choji not far behind. His heterochromatic eyes scanned the room for familiar faces, joyfully noticing that all of his friends had passed as well. His eyes landed on a familiar head of spikey raven hair, giving Mirou some relief that his cousin made it on time. He had no reason to believe that Sasuke would be late, however knowing that he was here gave the young boy a strange sense of comfort.

Mirou followed close behind Shikamaru as they made their way to the back of the class. However at the same time, the two boys passed by a familiar mop of blond hair.

"What the- why are you here? Today's meeting is for graduates only," Shikamaru spoke.

Naruto only grinned at the lazy Nara and pointed to the blue Hitai-ate that was tied to his forehead.

"Hey, don't you see this headband? As of today, I'm a ninja too!" He exclaimed with pride.

Mirou crossed his arms in delight and beamed at Naruto.

"That's fantastic Naruto! But how did you get them to let you re-take the exam?" Mirou questioned.

Naruto gave a cheeky grin and rubbed his nose before putting both his hands behind his back.

"I'm just awesome!" He boasted.

Naruto then continued to ramble about his plans to become the best ninja when Mirou's attention was taken away by the slamming open of the classroom door. He turned to see both Ino and Sakura pushing past each other, out of breath and with deadly glares.

"I won again, Sakura!" Ino yelled after catching her breath.

"What are you saying?" Sakura spat back, "The tip of my foot got in one centimeter faster!"

"You must be blind!" Ino hissed.

Sakura looked like she was about to retort when she suddenly looked in Mirou's general direction. It was only then that Mirou noticed that Naruto had stopped talking and was instead looking towards the pink headed girl with a dusting of blush. Sakura ran over towards their direction and Naruto's blush turned darker. As the young girl approached them, Naruto tried to speak.

"Mor... morning, Sakur-"

The blond was cut off when Sakura roughly shoved the unexpecting boy off of his seat and on to the floor, not even acknowledging him as she did so. Instead, she was more focused of Sasuke who Naruto was sitting beside.

"M-morning Sasuke.." Sakura spoke timidly.

Sasuke only turned his head slightly, not bothering to speak to her at all.

"Mind if I did Next to you?" The young girl asked.

Ino however, grabbed Sakura's arm before Sasuke could even think about answering and roughly tugged her away.

"Hey! I'm going to sit next to Sasuke!" Ino declared loudly, catching the attention of the other young girls.

"First come, first served!" Sakura yelled back.

"I got in the classroom sooner!" Ino spat, her voice getting louder with every argument.

"Idiot! If that's the case then I did!" Sakura retorted.

Soon, a large swarm of girls were closing in on the seat, bickering loudly over who got to side beside there precious Sasuke. Mirou, who had been watching the bizarre scene unfold, decided to step in to spare his cousin. He tentatively tapped one of the girls shoulders and put on the nicest face he could muster.

"Er, excuse me?" He asked.

The swarm of girls immediately stopped their fighting and turned their attention to the young boy, causing him to jump slightly.

"Actually, if it's okay with you, I was going to sit beside Sasuke today," he explained in a mousy voice.

The girls all looked at each other before looking back to Mirou. Ino then smirked and moved aside graciously, allowing Mirou to pass.

"Of course you can! I would never dream of coming between Sasuke and his family," She spoke in an exaggerated tone.

Sakura immediately figured out what her rival was planning and also moved out of the way with an equally smug expression on her face.

"What a coincidence, I was just about to give up my seat to you anyways," she stated in an equally exaggerated voice.

Ino turned her head sharply to glare at sakura.

"What did you just say billboard brow?" She snarled.

"I said that it was my seat Ino-pig," Sakura retorted.

This started yet another argument between the hoard of fan girls, forcing Mirou to carefully slide his way into the seat next to Sasuke, the latter of the two was completely ignoring the commotion that he had unwillingly caused. Mirou looked at the arguing girls with bewilderment and then back at his cousin. He honestly couldn't see as to why they all thought that he was such a big shot. Sure he was talented, intelligent, and maybe even above average in looks, but his personality was anything but magnetic. However Mirou did admire Sasuke for having the ability to but up with all of the fan girls, definatly not jealous of the idea of a large group of people constantly staring at his every move.

Suddenly, Naruto jumped up on to the table in front of sasuke and crouched down to glare at him. Sasuke, without a beat, returned the glare just as harshly.

"Naruto! Don't glare at Sasuke!" Sakura screeched.

"Naruto please get off the desk, you might get in trouble," Mirou added in a much softer tone.

Naruto barely glanced back, and instead glared at the olded Uchiha with more ferocity, a glare which Sasuke happily returned. The onlookers could only watch helplessly as the person sitting below Naruto shifted slightly, causing his elbow to bump into Naruto's back, forcing him to lose his balance. The room fell silent as Naruto's lips connected with Sasuke's. Mirou covered his mouth with his hand is utter shock as the two broke apart with clear disgust.

"You jerk, Naruto I'll kill you," Sasuke hissed while sputtering in an attempt to whole his mouth clean.

"My mouth is rotting!" Naruto exclaimed as he furiously wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

Sensing a menacing aura coming from behind him, Naruto turned in a cold sweat to see all of Sasuke's fangirls standing behind him with enraged faces.

"An accident, it was an accident," Naruto tried to explain.

However none of the girls were listening, completely blocking out his pleas with their fists. Mirou was still looking over at his cousin with surprise, his hand still covering his mouth. Slowly, his face morphed from shock into a mischievous grin. Sasuke caught sight of his cousin's expression and sharply turned to face him.

"What?" He hissed, still pissed at the currently black and blue Naruto.

"Don't worry Sasuke," Mirou chirped, leaning his head on to the palm of his hand. "I'll accept you no matter who you like," he said in a sing song voice.

Sasuke scoffed and turned away from his cousin, his face burning pink and now determined to ignore Mirou for the rest of the day. Iruka, who was previously watching the whole scene unfold, cleared his throat causing the class to quiet down in an instant.

"As of today, you all are full-fledged ninjas, however you are still Genin. The tough part's still to come! From here on you'll be in a squad of three and carry out missions with your Jonin teachers" Iruka announced.

Mirou blinked owlishly at the news before glancing around the room once again. He would be completely fine being in a team with anyone in his class, well, with one exception. His eyes fell upon the familiar red brown hair of Anri with a distorted expression. Mirou had almost completely forgotten about his tormentor of four years as of late. While she did still make a jab every now and then, Mirou's routine changed is such a way that Anri never got the chance to do anything further. However, if he were to be placed on a team with her without Sasuke... Mirou turned his head back to the front of the class, not even want to think about it.

"The groups have been determined so that the strength of the groups will he balanced. Now for the assignments!" Iruka announced.

Mirou waited in anticipation, crossing his fingers so that he may be placed in a group with one of his friends.

"Team six," Iruka started. "Anri Ono, Emiru Takenaka, and Mirou Uchiha!"

Mirou's heart fell to his stomach. He quickly turned his head towards Anri only to be greeted with the most devilish looking smirk he had ever seen, a smirk that said 'no one can help you now'. Mirou groaned and let his head hit the desk with a soft thunk, his previous good mood now completely evaporated.

Iruka continued to list off the other teams. "Team seven, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha! Team eight, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, and Kiba Inuzuka! Team Ten, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. That's all for the division!"

Naruto, who was in no way happy about being on the same team as Sasuke, stood up fron his seat and pointed at said Uchiha.

"Iruka-Sensei! Why does an exceptional student like me have to be in the same group as that guy?!" He bellowed.

Iruka looked up from his paper with an irked expression.

"Sasuke has the best grades of the graduates. Naruto, you're at the bottom!" Of course this is how it is when trying to balance the strength within groups," Iruka explains.

This answer however, only seemed to deepen Naruto's scowl. Sasuke barely glanced at the fuming blond before adding his own words to the conversation.

"Just don't get in my way, loser," He remarked.

Naruto was turning slightly red from anger.

"Hey! Wha'd you say!?" He barked back.

"You want to fight, loser?"

"Knock it off Naruto!" Sakura roared.

The other kids in class snickered at the scene that the blond was causing. Mirou however, was lost in his own little world, too worried about his future to listen to the conversation being held right in front of him.

"In the afternoon, I'll introduce you to your Jonnin teachers," Iruka spoke. "You're dismissed until then!"

It was only then did Mirou snap out of his thoughts. As the other students began to leave, he frantically searched the room for Anri. He found her two seconds later, walking quickly towards him with a familiar devilish grin. In a panic, Mirou ducked behind his desk and crawled his way to the other side. By chance, Choji walked past Mirou at that exact moment and Mirou took that opportunity to hide behind his friend on his way out. Choji gave him a strange look, but Mirou put his finger to his mouth and pointed at Anri who was scanning the room like a hawk. Choji immediately understood and gave his friend a thumbs up.

The two walked like that until they were far away from the academy. Mirou shakily rested his hands on his knees and let out a breath of relief.

"That was a close one," He mumbled to himself. "You're a life saver Choji."

Choji gave another thumbs up and opened a bag of chips. Close behind them, Shikamaru and Ino were catching up.

"You could have waited for us Choji. We are a team now you know," Ino stated with an annoyed look.

"Well I just-"

"It was my fault, sorry," Mirou interrupted. "I was hiding behind Choji to hide from Anri."

Ino blinked, having not noticed the shorter boy at first, before a sneer took over her face.

"That damn worm! I bet she was pestering you about Sasuke wasn't she!" She fumed.

Mirou rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Ah, well, she's actually on my team," he answered.

Ino tilted her head in confusion. "Is... that all? Why are you running away from her if she's your teammate?" She asked.

The other three looked at her in surprise before the peices slowly clicked into place. Shikamaru sighed in annoyance and lazily placed his hands behind his head.

"Of course you wouldn't know, you're obsession with Sasuke takes up ninety percent of your brain. Anri's been picking on Mirou since we were seven," Shilamaru spoke lazily.

Ino looked between Shikamaru and Mirou, completely bewildered by the news.

"What!?" She shrieked, cousing the others to put their hands over their ears. "Anri's been bulling you!? That miserable worm! All you've ever done is be nice and she just turns around and does this?!"

Mirou grew flustered by her words and held up his hands in an embarrassed panic.

"W-well I don't try to be to nice or anything that's just how I am! And there's no need to get so angry about it I'm not that bothered by it anymore. Besides, we don't even know each other very well so..." Mirou trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Ino on the other hand, heald out her hand towards the boy and stick her head up high.

"Well we're friends now so I'm allowed to be angry," she declared

Mirou blinked is suprize before slowly moving his hand to meet hers.

"Oh, So we're friends now?" He asked cautiously. Ino confidently nodded her head and enthusiastically shook Mirou's hand.

Mirou smiled and was about to ask Ino if she was sure when the blonde suddenly started to speed walk away with the young boy's hand still grasped firmly in hers. Mirou looked back to his friends who following close behind, equally confused by the interaction. He then looked back at Ino who seemed to read the look on his face.

"We're all eating lunch together. Team ten plus Mirou and that's final," she spoke confidently.

Mirou looked at her in both awe and gratitude, wondering to himself as to how she could be so confident in her words. The four of them eventually made it to the balcony of a building that Mirou didn't recognize and sat down to eat. Choji brought out a large bag filled with onigiri and gave one to the other three, keeping a large majority of it to himself. The young Uchiha happily sat with his friends, ignoring the growing feeling of dread as the seconds slowly started ticking away.

"Alright, if we're going to be in the same group you're going to have to follow my lead. That's the only way it'll work." Ino spoke loudly.

Mirou could almost hear Shikamaru's eyes rolling as he turned to him with a look of exasperation.

"Why don't you lead us to some barbecue, Ino?" Choji said while taking a bite of his food.

"Hopeless!"

Mirou finished his onigiri before turning to face the blonde. "You know, barbecue dosen't sound half bad right about now," he teased

"Don't encourage him!" Ino snapped, but it only made the two friends laugh.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes for a second time before catching two familiar figures at the building across from him. One was Naruto, who was sneaking up on an unsuspecting Sasuke who looked like he was just trying to eat his lunch.

"Naruto," he stated, causing the other three group members to watch the scene unfold. They all watched with varying degrees of surprise as Naruto jumped inside the window to attack Sasuke, causing the wooden shutter to close behind them.

Ino was the first one to speak up. "Naruto! If you so much as scratch him, you're on my enemy list forever."

"Don't worry," Said Mirou as he was handed another onigiri by Choji. "They fight like this a lot, and Sasuke almost always wins."

There was a lot of crashing and shouting coming from the room before it went completely silent. The onlookers watched in anticipation for one of the boys to finally open the window, but they were met with more silence.

"Wha- what happened?" Ino asked anxiously.

Finally the window opened, revealing Sasuke who walked away from the scene without a single scratch on him.

"He beat Naruto without even breaking a sweat," Shikamaru said with astonishment.

Ino puffed out her chest and smirked. "Well what'd you expect? Naruto against my boy Sasuke? No conte-"

"That's not Sasuke," Mirou interrupted. The other three looked at him in confusion.

"Whaddya mean that's not Sasuke? Of course it is, just look at him," Ino argued.

Mirou looked between 'Sasuke's' retreating figure and the window before nodding firmly to himself. "That's definitely not Sasuke. Just wait and see."

And wait they did. The four of them watched the window intently for a few short minutes before a second Sasuke came out and walked away in a similar fashon to the first. Shikamaru was the first one to catch on to what happened.

"I get it, so Naruto somehow beat Sasuke and then transformed into him before leaving," Shikamaru explained lazily. "But how did you know that before I did?"

"Well..." Mirou started, but he didn't have an answer. It just didn't feel like Sasuke, not in the way he walked or in the way he jumped out the window. Even from a distance he could see that nothing about the figure was familiar. "I guess it's just a family thing,"Mirou answered.

The group was forced to pack up and leave soon after. Mirou had a pit slowly growing deeper within his stomach with every step that he took towards the academy. He knew that once he entered those doors he would be confined to the hell that is Anri's torment until he was at least a Chuunin, and even then. His shoulders slumped as he thought about his future years at the hands of the she-devil, not that he would ever call her that out loud.

The group split up once they entered the classroom, with team ten going to the back of the class and Mirou sitting in the front with team six. He sat anxiously beside Emiru, who in turn sat beside Anri. She gave Mirou a cruel smirk as he sat down that caused the Uchiha to gulp. He didn't know what she had planned but he knew that it wasn't going to end well for him.

The first Jonnin was a familiar face, Asuma who was coming for team ten. As the group passed him by, Ino and Choji both gave him a smile that said "good luck" while Shikamaru shot him a look of pity. The next Jonnin to come was a lady who introduced herself as Kurenai. She had come for Kiba and his team, the former also giving him a pitying look. As time passed by more and more teams came and went until it was only teams six and seven left. Mirou waited anxiously, fiddling with the ends of his gloves as a distraction. 

The classroom door slammed open, causing the remaining students to jump. Through the door came a woman with short strawberry blonde hair that fluffed out in every direction except for the left side which was shaved. She wore a green qipao dress that was tied with a dark red-brown obi as well as shorts of a similar colour. Mirou took notice of the practical bandages that were around her shins and forearms, not ones that you would use for injury, but for extra padding or armor. The woman seemed to be winded and out of breath, doubled over on her knees.

"I- I'm not late am I, Iruka Sensei?" She wheezed between breaths.

Iruka shook his head in disappointment. "You're fifteen minutes late. I expected better from a Jonnin," he scolded.

The woman composed herself and looked towards the remaining students. "Sorry about that, I just got back from a mission a few minutes ago, my name is Haruga Abiko. Please stand if you are in team six."

Mirou, Emiru, and Anri all stood at once. Haruga crossed her arms confidently after seeing her new students.

'Anri Ono, not the smartest in the class but her skills in shuriken jutsu and her strength alone more then makes up for it,' The Jonnin thought. 'Emiru Takenaka, one of the smartest in the class and a member of the Takenaka clan, a clan that specializes in umbrella weapons and illusions. He works great under pressure, but his fighting skills could use some work,' She then turned to Mirou with a certain gleam in her bright yellow eyes. 'Mirou Uchiha, perhaps not the best on paper, but his ability to pick up new skills as fast as he can is a talent all on it's own, not to mention the rumors of him already Awakening the sharingan. He could be a great Shinobi if he only had confidence in himself.'

Once she was done analyzing her new students, Haruga placed her hand on her hips and pointed to herself with gusto. "Congratulations team six, now follow me. Your real training begins now!"

Mirou was the last to leave his seat, but as he did, he waved back to his friend and cousin in the row behind him. Naruto waved back while Sasuke gave him a subtle nod. It wasn't much but it was all he needed to get through the day. Or at least he hoped.

The new team sat I'm the middle of training ground nine, the only training ground that reached the wall of the village. Haruga observed her team with watchful eyes, getting a good sense of their personalities before continuing.

"Alright," She suddenly spoke. "Now I know a lot about you guys from your files, but I don't know a lot about you as people, like your likes, dislikes, ambitions and whatever. So let's go around and say a few things about ourselves, alright? I'll go first."

She paused to think for a couple of seconds. "Hmmm... Well, my name is Haruga Abiko, but you guys already know that. I like enthusiasm and dipping noodles, I dislike killjoys, and my ambition? Well, it's to make you guys live up to your true potential," she smiled brightly, her eyes lingering slightly on Mirou as she said this. The boy shifted under her gaze.

"You, with the braid," she pointed at Anri. "You go next."

Anri stuck her nose up in the air as she spoke. "My name is Anri Ono. I like Sasuke and the colour blue, I dislike people who think they're better then they really are, and my ambition is to be the best kinoichi to come out of the academy," she proclaimed.

Haruga grinned at the young girl. "Very ambitious, I like it! Next is you in the red."

Emiru gave a neutral expression as he spoke. "Emiru Takenaka. I like skipping stones. I dislike over confidence. My ambition is to learn many things," he spoke vaguely.

"A man of few words, I get it," Haruga nodded approvingly. "You with the eyes, it's your turn."

Mirou chose to ignore the comment about his eyes, he was used to Anri's comments by now anyways. "My name is Mirou Uchiha. I like watering my plants and hanging out with my friends, I dislike... uh," Mirou paused, noticing that Anri was now listening more intently. Mirou gulped at the thought of Anri using his dislikes against him. "...well nothing really comes to mind on that one," he lied. Anri huffed and turned her head. "My ambition? Well, I guess I want to be a Shinobi that my mother would be proud of." Mirou said is a softer voice. It still hurt to talk about his mother, but it's as they say, time heals all wounds.

"Very honorable," Haruga commented. She then stood up, brushing herself off as she did. "Now then, now that we all know each other a bit better, we can officially say that this is team six. You are no longer an academy student, you are a real ninja who will have to face very real dangers. Tomorrow we will meet back here for a very special survival exercise do you understand?"

"Yes Haruga Sensei," The three Gennin spoke in unison.

"Good. We will meet up at nine o'clock sharp so don't be late." She finished. And just like that she disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving the three kids all alone.

Mirou tried to escape before Anri made her move, but a hand on his shoulder haulted his movements.

"Now where do you think you're going, half' n half?" Anri spoke cruelly "we're a team now, and we have so much to catch up on, we haven't spoken in months."

Mirou heart was beating quickly in his chest as he tried to come up with an excuse to get away from her. He knew what the old Anri would do, and if he was dealing with the old Anri he could either endure whatever she had planned or slip away easily. But this wasn't the Old Anri, this was the new Anri, and she was much more bold, more forceful, and more egotistical then the old Anri. Mirou didn't want to know what she was going to do.

"I... I have to go and see Shikamaru!" He blurted out. The Nara compound was close by and if his Sensei was as quick as Haruga then he should be home by now. "We're going to play some Go together, and he dosent like to be kept waiting so I have to go now."

Anri raised her brow in disbelief and Mirou was preying that his lie would work. Emiru, who had been quiet this whole time, finally decided to speak up.

"Come on Anri, let's just go. Your mom's gonna be pissed if you don't get home on time."

Anri glanced back at her partner in contemplation before sighing and letting go of Mirou's arm.

"Fine, whatever, we can catch up some other time. I don't want to waste my breath talking to this trash heap anyways."

Mirou watched as the two slowly faided into the distance before letting out a breath of relief. He grasped of the place where his heard was still quickly beating in an attempt to calm it down. He turned to go home but then paused, a churning feeling in his gut telling him to stop.

'Maybe I should go to Shikamaru's, just in case.' He thought to himself before changing directions, not noticing the pair of eyes watching him in annoyance.


End file.
